New Beginning-Barry's Story after Hogwarts
by JennTH
Summary: Follows Barry Hoofer after he leaves Hogwarts and begins a Ministry of Magic job. Sequel to my story New Beginning- Barry's Story which takes place during Harry's years at Hogwarts. If you do not like OC's this story likely isn't the story for you.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is the story that follows Barry Hoofer after he leaves Hogwarts. You can read my other story, New Beginning: Barry's Story if you want to catch up to this story. This is a reminder as I have done in all my stories (even for new readers) that if you don't like OC's that this story likely isn't your cup of tea. My New Beginning series is a series about kids who started at Hogwarts after the Battle of Hogwarts. Barry's story is the prequel to it. Barry is just a year younger than Harry, so it follows his point of view about Harry's events at Hogwarts. Once again (because this was once pointed out) Barry's name is a coincidence and was not meant to be a character that rhymes with Harry. His name was picked for a B name as all the Hoofer kids have B names. The story originally started with Ashley who started in the class after Harry left. She befriended Ben, Barry's little brother. Up until I decided to write Barry's story, he was only meant to be a background character. For more information, go to my profile to find out more about this series and Barry since I don't want this authors note to be too long.

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"I can't believe you're moving out already," mum said to me as she blinked back tears. "I've always hoped that you kids would stay home for a year or two."

"I know," I said as I gazed around what would be my old room at the end of the summer.

It was hard to believe for me as well, but I was ready to go. I didn't want to stay at home any longer, even if the sound of being an only child for a year sounded pleasant. I used to daydream all the time about being the only Hoofer child at home. I would be the center of mum and dad's attention for once.

However, I was ready to move on. I was ready to get an apartment with Nick. Tasha, my beautiful girlfriend, would have a flat in the same building with a few of our dorm mates. I didn't think it would be all that different for mum and dad anyway. They were so used to me being gone at school. I would be able to see them more anyway. They wanted me to come by for Sunday night dinners.

"But maybe now Brenda can have this room," I said as I turned to mum. "She's wanted her own room for so long."

"No," mum said firmly. "This is going to be the guest room. The girls are fine sharing a room, but I would like a room for you or anyone else to stay in. Brianne always has her friends over, and I think Ben's new little friends will be frequent visitors as well. I get the feeling someday…" but she paused and shook her head.

"Brenda isn't going to like that," I told her. "But what do you have a feeling about?"

"Brenda will get over it, just as she had to years ago. This is the guest room. Someday you and Tasha will marry and have kids. I want this room for you two and the grandkids. Brenda is starting her seventh year now. She'll be moving out soon, and if she doesn't, she'll still have her room to herself with Brianne at Hogwarts," mum told me as she began walking over to the guest bed.

She sat down on it and looked around.

"I love the Ravenclaw colours, but I think we're still going to lighten the room up a bit," she continued as her eyes fell on the banner above my bed.

I felt a bit odd about that. This room had been decorated for Ravenclaw since my first year. On my walls were various pictures of me, my siblings, and my friends as we grew up. I glanced over at the picture on my bedside table. It was of us four Hoofer kids, Tasha, and Nick, all playing Monopoly one New Years' Eve. I hadn't known the picture had been taken at the time, but it was one of my favourites. The room was decorated to my tastes, and at the end of the month, I'd be gone. Mum and dad would start redecorating, and it would just be a guest room. It would be like the last eighteen years hadn't happened.

"I've always loved how we decorated Ben's room," mum continued. "I'll always have a soft spot for Ravenclaw, of course, but Ben's room seems so cozy with the yellow walls. It's better than how he used to have it."

For a while, Ben really didn't have much on his walls. He'd gone through a stage around his ninth birthday where he hadn't wanted to be seen as a little boy anymore. He'd gone as far as putting his toys away, and he'd taken all the childish posters down. The walls had just been white and bare. Brianne and I had helped him decorate it to look more 'grown-up,' but it still seemed dull and unoccupied. Now it looked as if there was some personality in it.

I nodded.

"I do, too," I said. "It looks like someone lives in there now. I still worry about him, though. He feels he needs to live up to all of us, and it doesn't help with Brenda on his case all the time. I'm just glad that they are in different houses. I get the feeling that she would bother him more than she did Brianne. She hates his friends."

"I don't think she does, or your friends or Brianne's. I think it's jealousy, especially since she lost Kendra," mum responded. "Brenda hasn't been the same since her death. The only time I saw her really happy was when she was with Nick."

"Brenda was always bitter and angry, though," I said. "Even before Kendra died. And Nick never should have been with her in the first place."

I had a love-hate relationship with Brenda. I had since I was eleven. There was a time when we had been close, but as the time neared for me to go to Hogwarts, she changed into a bitter and spiteful girl. For years, she was like that. She did calm down somewhat when she met her best friend, Kendra.

The two had an off and on friendship because Brenda would rat Kendra or someone else out. They had a massive fight in their third year when Brenda became part of something called The Inquisitor Squad. After that, they were still friends, but it was never the same between them. When she was in her fifth year, and I was in my sixth, You-Know-Who was back in full power, and he was out in the open. Many people died, including Kendra. Unfortunately, her entire family was murdered, and Brenda had lost it.

She barely smiled or talked to anyone after that until she and Nick began to date. I'd never been okay with them dating, and it wasn't just because she was my sister. I just always felt that Nick wasn't serious about her, especially since he couldn't stand her for years. At times I felt like they were together because they didn't think they had anyone else. Nick broke up with her just a little over a month ago, and she'd gone back to the angry girl she had been before.

She was somewhat better now, but for weeks I was angry with Nick. I only just forgave him at the end of the school year, but at times I felt annoyed with him. To this day, I still didn't get why he was with her, and I believed they should never have been together.

"We've had this talk many times, Barry," mum said. "Maybe they shouldn't have, but they were. It's done now, and I am just glad to see it didn't ruin your relationship with your sister or Nick. I just hope she moves on soon. I honestly don't think she will until she leaves school, unfortunately. It's something I need to talk to Ben about. He seems to forget that she and Kendra were best friends at one time. He needs to stop rubbing it in that she has no friends. He isn't helping matters."

"Well, in Ben's defense, he was quite young the last time she came over," I said. "And Brenda never told him about Kendra's death, and we never told him. He might just think they stopped being friends. Remember? We tried to shield him from all the deaths. Maybe it's time to tell him the truth."

"No," mum said, shaking her head. "Not unless it comes up. I never wanted the four of you to go through all of that, but you did. I told you most of what I could because you questioned everything Barry, but I was never happy to do it. I kept a lot from Brenda and Brianne, though. I kept even more from your little brother. There is so much that he doesn't know, and that he doesn't need to know. Perhaps when he is your age, we can be more open, but if shielding him will give him the childhood that you and your sisters never had, then I will do it. Brianne went through too much. And yet, she is still the happy sweet girl she always has been."

"You won't always be able to shield him, but I see your point," I responded. "He can be as serious as Brenda. I doubt he'd ever be bitter, though. I still don't understand, though," I said as I thought of what she'd said earlier. "You said you have a feeling about something."

Mum sighed. "Don't tell Ben this. I'm sure he already has his suspicions, of course, but it's about Michael. I've always told your friends, especially Tasha, that they're welcome here no matter what. You've seen his house when we drop him off. I just get the feeling that he's going to need a safe place to stay at. He can always stay in Ben's room, of course, but if he wants, this room will be open to him as well."

I frowned when mum mentioned Michael. I couldn't stand the kid at all. I didn't want to think of him staying in my room. He was always a prat to Ben, but he was also rude to Ben's friend, Ashley, as well. The girl wasn't all that attractive, but she still twelve. Michael was always making fun of her for it, and unfortunately, so was my prat of a brother. He'd learned his lesson thankfully, but it still bothered me that my own brother had been such a git to someone who he considered his best friend. He'd done it only because he didn't find her pretty.

"Michael is a little git," I finally said.

"Michael shouldn't be rude, but we may be judging him prematurely," mum told me. "I get the feeling that he doesn't just come from a poor home. There is no excuse to be rude, but he might not know how to handle his emotions properly. Think of how you were when you were twelve. A child, that age is hormonal, and if you add stress on top of that… well, let's just say it's not a good mix."

I didn't respond. I didn't agree with her. No matter how bad his home life was, it didn't excuse the way he treated my brother or other kids. I didn't say this, though. There was no point. I just didn't think that he was a good friend to my brother.

"I can tell you don't agree," mum said when I didn't say anything. "Just try to be nice to him when he is over. The kids will be here close to the end of the month."

"Maybe I should leave sooner then," I said, but I wasn't serious, and mum knew that. She just smiled at me and then stood up.

"I'll just leave you to your packing then, dear. You know, you can use magic," she added.

"I want to do it without," I replied.

Something was satisfying about doing it the muggle way. I knew by using magic that I could have everything all packed up and done already, but I didn't want to do it that way. I wanted to take my time. I'd been at it since the beginning of the summer. Mum and dad, and even my siblings, had questioned why I was doing it without magic. Mum just smiled now as if understanding.

She left the room without another word. I stared over at the pictures wondering if I should pack them, but I hesitated. I still had all summer to pack, and what I really wanted to do was hang out with my siblings. I knew the girls were in the pool. Brianne had invited me to go out with them. Knowing Ben, he was probably in his room.

So turning from my pictures, I headed to my drawer to grab my bathing suit. I went into my bathroom to quickly change, and then I headed down to Ben's room. Sure enough, when I glanced into his room, it was to find him at his desk working. Leave it to my brother to be working on schoolwork when it was a beautiful sunny day.

"Why don't you come outside with us?" I asked him. "You know I'm not going to be here for much longer, you should spend time with me before I'm gone," I added just for a bit of guilt. I expected him to laugh

Ben responded in annoyance instead of with a smile. It was hard to say lately what kind of mood my brother would be in. At times he was the cheerful, happy little boy he'd always been, and other times he was this moody stranger. I sincerely hoped he wasn't going down the Brenda route. He remembered what a nightmare she used to be, and could be after all.

"You'll be around all summer," he told me, which actually hurt.

Ben used to look forward to me being around all the time. He hated it when I wasn't home, and he would want me to play with him. It used to be hard to shake him. Anytime I offered to play him, he would get excited. Soon he'd be at school, and this wouldn't be my home anymore. This was his reaction to all that? What happened to the kid who used to look up to me?

"Wow, what's your problem?" I asked. "You should take a break from schoolwork. I know you want to do well, but you have the rest of the summer."

"Look at this!" Ben responded angrily as he held out a piece of parchment.

I entered Ben's room and walked over to him. I took the letter and read it. I could understand his annoyance right away. I wondered what it was with his friends. It seemed Ashley was the only one who didn't lash out. I liked Ellen, but her letter was out of line. She was blaming Ben for her parent's divorce.

I gazed at my brother and decided I should try and calm him down. After all, she likely didn't mean it. I couldn't imagine what it would be like if mum and dad decided to divorce. It would be awful. So I decided to push away my resentment for the little blond and look at things logically.

"Well, while it's a rude letter, I don't believe she means it," I finally said. "She's just angry. I can't imagine if mum and dad divorced. I'm sure she's just trying to vent, and she'll regret it later."

"It doesn't excuse it!" Ben snapped. "She's always doing this when it comes to me. She takes her problems out on me, or else she has to bring up Jaime. Ashley had forgiven me for all of that; we've both moved past it. I feel like Ellen wants to start drama between us. It's awful what she is going through, but it doesn't excuse any of this. It's the same as Michael taking his problems out on Ashley. He's been so rude to her, and even in the letters I've gotten from him, he is still insulting her. Michael and Ellen are getting worse. They're my best friends, but sometimes I don't even want to talk to them. Her parents' divorce doesn't justify the rudeness."

"I'm not saying it does, and I can understand why you're angry with her," I responded. "I would be too; I'm just saying you should give her some time to cool down. I'm sure she will come begging you for forgiveness soon enough."

"Well I am not even going to write back to her," Ben told me, and he reached for the letter.

I gave it to him, and I watched him tear it into pieces and then throw them into the vanishing bin. At times I couldn't help but agree with Brenda that Ben might not have chosen the best of friends. Tasha, Nick, and I didn't always get along growing up, but we rarely took our problems out on each other. Nick did when he found out his parents were pregnant with his baby brother, but otherwise, we talked and got along.

I wasn't going to say any of this to Ben, though. He would just get defensive about them. He would learn eventually. Either the four of them were going to have to learn to get along, or else their friendship wasn't going to last. Maybe it was because we grew up in stressful times that we got along. Ben had a carefree year compared to my first year after all. His second year would likely be better than mine had been. Maybe without fearing death every day, it made kids bored, and they fought over stupid things. Perhaps that was the normal friendship that kids were supposed to have.

"She can write back when she's ready to apologize," Ben continued.

"I think that's your best bet," I responded "Now come on, change into your bathing suit and come out into the pool. You should enjoy your summer holidays. It goes by quicker than you'd think."

And I thought about what I'd wanted to tell him for a while. I could see how extreme he could be. He not only felt he had to live up to us, but he wanted to be Prefect, Head Boy, and Quidditch captain. He wanted to be top of his year as well. He was working too hard, and he was stressing himself out, and I knew part of that was because he'd been sorted into Hufflepuff instead of Ravenclaw.

Ever since he was a young kid, he'd been saying he might be the different Hoofer kid, but I think he honestly expected to be Ravenclaw. The hat had barely sat on his head before it had sorted him into Hufflepuff. We'd all been shocked; even my dormmates had been. And I think it really made Ben feel insecure. I knew he loved Hufflepuff house, but I knew he wondered why the hat only considered him for Hufflepuff and not Ravenclaw. And it's why I thought he felt he needed to work so hard. He was worse than I had been back when I first started.

I decided before we went down that I should advise my little brother. I missed the boy he used to be.

"Fine, I'll be right down," Ben said as I was trying to think of how to tell him all this.

"That's a good man," I told him. "I want to tell you something I wish someone had told me when I first started school, and I should have told Brenda. It's fine to work hard to do well in school, but you need to have fun as well. Don't spend all your time on schoolwork. You need to find a happy medium between the two. I know you think just because you're Hufflepuff that you have to prove yourself, but you really don't. The hat obviously thought you were a Hufflepuff for a reason, and I can honestly see why it does. That doesn't make you less of a Ravenclaw."

And I left the room before he could get defensive about it as I knew he would. I'd known since he was a little boy that he could be really intense, but he was a lot worse than I thought he would. It worried me that he wouldn't have fun, and someday he might snap.

We spent the day enjoying ourselves in the pool. It was likely one of the last times we'd be playing together as the Hoofer kids. I was moving out soon, but my siblings had their own lives as well. I could already see myself marrying Tasha even if I didn't have the ring yet, and soon enough, Brenda would meet someone as well. I didn't want Brianne to meet anyone, but it was inevitable that she would. There would be a time when we'd have our own families. Even Ben was going to be married someday. It was likely going to be Ellen or Ashley, and as much as my little brother denied it, I had a strong feeling it would be Ashley.

At the moment, he wasn't interested in either one of them. He was talking about some girl named Melanie in his year and house. I couldn't help but smile at him as he spoke of her. He'd started fancying a girl about the same time as I did. I just hoped his first relationship would go a lot better than mine. I hated to think ill of the dead, but my first girlfriend had been a nightmare. Unfortunately, she'd been another casualty of the war.

"Just don't be nervous," I told him. "Girls like confidence. Every time I asked a girl out, they always said yes. Well, not always. There were a couple who weren't, but you soon realize that they aren't worth it anyway. Never take rejection too seriously."

"But what if they're mean?" Ben asked.

"Then you know they aren't worth it," Brenda said. "You're too young anyway, Ben. I would think you'd be more worried about your schoolwork than about dating or your toxic friends."

"Don't start Brenda," I said sternly. "And he isn't that much younger than you when you started to date. He's the same age that Brianne and I were. Don't interfere with his relationships."

Brenda just rolled her eyes, but thankfully she didn't have a ready retort. She just swam away. Ben and Brianne began whispering, and then Brianne giggled. I watched them for a moment before swimming after Brenda.

"Lecture time?" She asked when I reached her. "I'm going into my seventh year, Barry. I'm probably going to be Head Girl."

"I know," I told her. "And you'll be awesome, but Brenda, ease up a bit on him. You remember your first and second year, as well as I remember mine. People dated even if it wasn't real dating. Ben's going to be thirteen soon."

"I know," she said. "I suppose it's better than Ellen. I worry so much he's going to end up with her. You can tell that she's going to be beautiful."

"I think it will be Ashley," I responded. "I can already see it between them at times, and his face lights up whenever he talks about her."

Brenda made a face at that. I thought while she disliked Ben's friends, she had a soft spot for Ashley now. Apparently, that wasn't the case. I raised my eyebrows at her.

"She's a nice girl, but she isn't the one for Ben," Brenda said. "Neither is Ellen. She probably just wants Ben for our money just like Ellen does, and you know Ellen does. We both heard that conversation she had with Michael. Ashley comes from a poor family too."

"I never got that impression of Ashley," I responded. "Ellen for sure, but not Ashley. Either way, you're the oldest now. I'm moving out, and you need to watch out for them, but not hover. Just stand back and let Ben and Brianne grow and make mistakes. Eventually, he'll figure it out about Michael and Ellen, and if you're right about Ashley, then he'll figure it out. Ben is a smart kid. You need to give him the benefit of the doubt."

"But he is also the most vulnerable one," Brenda responded. "You and I both know that. He's brilliant, but we both how he can be. He is very emotional, and he gets upset easily and broods. At times I think he walled himself up after Brianne went to school. It could be why he chose those three as his friends. All three come up from unstable homes."

"So?" I asked. "Brenda, kids, can't be judged because of their home life, and a lot of kids at Hogwarts have single parents or even no parents now. We're not better than everyone just because we come from money."

"Maybe not, but usually, if a kid has emotional problems, they tend to be drawn to kids like themselves," Brenda responded. "There is a reason why Nick and Tasha were your friends, and there is a reason why Kendra was mine."

"To be honest, I don't think you're wrong about Ben building up a wall around himself," I began and then sighed wondering if I was about to get yelled at before I continued: "But I think you've put up a wall around yourself after Kendra died. You're not willing to get close to anyone, even when you were with Nick. You did at first, but then he said you closed up around him. I know losing Kendra was hard for you, but to be honest-"

"To be honest, it's none of your business," Brenda snapped. "I don't want to talk about Kendra or even Nick. I'd tell you the truth about Nick, but you aren't willing to see what has been under your nose for years! You might not have a wall around yourself, Barry, but you've always been in denial about certain things. You always wanted to ignore what was right in front of you."

"And what have I been in denial about exactly?" I asked with annoyance.

I couldn't figure out what she was talking about. I believed out of all of us; I was the one who was always aware of everything that had been going on. Brenda had always been the one in denial, or she just didn't care. Brianne had always been too upbeat and cheerful to really notice anything, and Ben had been too young. I'd always looked out for all three of them, so I didn't know what she could be talking about.

"I promised I wouldn't tell you," Brenda said as she looked away with tears in her eyes. "I shouldn't have said that, but you brought up Kendra and- I can't tell you."

"Then what else have I been in denial about?" I asked, deciding not to press the issue.

It did bother me that Nick was keeping something from me, though. We'd always promised to be honest with each other after all.

"What's the point?" Brenda asked. "All of you have always just seen me as a brat, or spoiled, or just an uptight bitch! You've never wanted to see things from my point of view."

"I've been trying since we were kids," I told her with annoyance. "I've always told you that you can come to me! You just never did. You know it was me who told mum and dad to stop spanking you. I always looked out for you, but you just acted like a brat because you couldn't have your own room!"

"It wasn't just about that," Brenda snapped. "It was a big part of it, but it wasn't just that. But even to this day, I don't get why Ben has had a room all to himself when he is the youngest. Even now, I don't get your room because mum and dad want it to be a guestroom. None of you seem to see that for our entire lives, it's always been me who gets the short end of the stick! I'm done talking to you!"

And before I could respond, she began to swim away. I stared after her feeling more confused and annoyed than before. All of us, even Ben, had tried to reach out to her, but she wouldn't listen. She remained the misunderstood girl, and at times I wondered if she enjoyed it. She wouldn't even talk about Kendra with anyone. Everyone could see that it had affected her greatly.

I glanced over at Ben and Brianne, who were playing a two-man game of Marco Polo. Feeling relieved that my brother was finally acting his age, I swam over to join them.


	2. Chapter 2

"Finally on our own," Nick said as he glanced around the flat, which was cluttered with boxes and furniture. "Bet it feels tiny compared to your mansion."

"Probably feels tiny to you, too," I responded.

Indeed he was right, though. The entire flat could fit into my old bedroom. The kitchen barely had any moving room; the bathroom didn't even have a tub; it was just a toilet with a shower. The living room could barely fit our couch, and a small hallway led to two tiny bedrooms. I wasn't sure how I was going to fit everything in my room unless I put an expansion charm on it.

"When I pictured us getting a place, I didn't imagine it would be this small," Nick said.

"It's better than that, one-bedroom," I reminded him.

We'd first found a one-bedroom in our price range, and we were close to getting it even if it meant we had to share a room again, but Nick's father managed to find our two-bedroom instead. He knew of a couple who just moved out because they were having twins, and they'd already had a toddler. Nick's dad managed to get us the apartment, which both of us were relieved about.

Though I'd shared a room with my old dorm mates for years, I was ready to have a bedroom for myself full time. At times I would want Tasha to sleepover, and I knew Nick likely would want a girl around as well. It worked better this way.

"You can say that again," Nick replied. "But it's a place of our own, I suppose. Everyone starts out small likely. Someday I am going to have a house the size of your old place."

"I don't doubt that," I murmured as I walked over to the pile of boxes.

Nick was going to be an Obliviator, and I heard they made good money. It would be a few years before he got to that level, but I figured between the two of us, we'd eventually have a good savings each.

I was going into the Invisibility Task Force. My job would be to help keep significant things hidden from muggles. I was quite excited about it. It had taken me forever to decide on a career finally. For the longest time, I debated on magical law, but with my job, I could travel as well. Some of the time, we'd be required to go to different countries. It paid well, though not as well as Magical Law would have. At times I thought I could transfer there later if I wanted to change careers. For now, I was happy with my decision.

I began opening one of the boxes with my wand.

"I think we're going to have to put expansion charms on our rooms," Nick said as he joined me. "Are we allowed to do that since we're in a muggle neighbourhood?"

"We should be fine," I told him. "We should probably double-check, but as long as we restore it all before we move, I don't see why not. It's not as if muggles will be coming in here."

"What if the building manager needs to come in?" Nick asked.

"They have to give twenty-four hours notice," I replied.

Nick nodded as he too opened a box.

"This is the hardest part, unpacking," he said as he let out a sigh. "Think we could get our mum's back to do this for us?"

"Maybe, but you do know we have these things called wands?" I responded with a grin.

"It still takes some work," Nick replied, laughing. "But you know, even after all this time, the novelty still hasn't worn off that we can do magic outside of Hogwarts," and then he laughed. "Which is good since we'll never be there as students again."

"Odd not being on being on the train," I said while I started to pull things from the box.

I wished I'd been more organized when I'd packed. Mum had told me I should, but I hadn't thought it would make a difference. Now I realized she was right. The box I'd opened was full of some old books; some dinnerware mum had bought me, and old parchment.

"I almost met you lot there today, you know," Nick said. "Just so I could see it off, but I decided it was a waste of time and mum thought I should come here anyway. She said I should start unpacking."

The train had left earlier that day. I'd gone with my parents to see my sisters and Ben off. Brenda hadn't really said much to me for the rest of the summer, so I was surprised when she'd hugged me with tears in her eyes. I'd whispered in her ear that she was officially the oldest. I sincerely hoped she would look after them the proper way. The youngest Hoofer was finally at Hogwarts. The last of us were grown up, and it was her responsibility just as it had been Sebastian's at one time.

I had to admit, it was tough watching them all board the train knowing that I was just seeing kids off instead of being seen off. There would come a time when I would go back with my own child, and I knew even then that it would be a child with Tasha.

"They're lucky this year," Nick continued. "With the Tri-Wizard Tournament back and everything. Hopefully, there won't be any mad stuff happening."

"I doubt it," I said. "They'll be so overly cautious. They debated a long while about bringing it back, and I think it would have been at Beauxbatons this time, but they decided that the last tournament was a fluke, so it's at Hogwarts. Ben is so excited about it. That little git Michael was bothering me about it, but I promised mum I'd be nice. He followed me around the one night, asking me questions, and sometimes the same ones."

"I still think you're overly harsh on him," Nick told me, levitating some green vases out of a box. "He's a twelve-year-old kid, and he comes from a poor background. His parents are alcoholics. They might be abusive, as well. He shouldn't be a git, but he might not know how to handle it properly. Someone should talk to him and find out what's going on."

"Or maybe Ben will come to his senses and stop speaking to him," I answered. "It goes beyond being a git. He's even rude when it's our hospitality. He was rude to my dad all the way to the station today. He's just an ignorant little prick."

Nick pursed his lips together, but he didn't say anything. I didn't understand why everyone, including Tasha, thought I was overly judgmental. It had actually caused a minor fight between us when she brought up Brenda. My sister was nothing like that kid!

We unpacked in silence, only speaking up to ask where we wanted something. I couldn't help but wonder why Nick brought so many vases. I had a feeling his mother had packed them or something.

"What time are the girls coming up here anyway?" Nick asked after we'd gone through a few boxes.

"Tasha had orientation today," I said. "But she'll likely be here sometime tonight. I don't know if Samaira and Gretchen will come up with her or not."

"Still can't believe she is roommates with Gretchen. I know she changed, but they hated each other for years. We hated her for years," Nick said.

Gretchen was someone we hadn't gotten along with until our sixth year. She'd always been a nightmare, but she'd changed after our fifth year. At the end of our sixth, she'd seen one of her best friends, Katrina killed during the battle. That had changed her even more. For the first time, she hadn't spoken to anyone, but us remaining Ravenclaw's had stepped in. We'd wanted to make sure she passed her NEWTs, so we helped her move on.

A lot of people weren't the same in our seventh year, though. Two of our dorm mates, Ivan and Darren, were killed as well during the battle, and many others, including my first girlfriend, Olivia. We still tried to have fun and be normal kids, but a lot of it wasn't the same as it had been before our sixth year. It was hard to be carefree after seeing so much. I hadn't told my family, but I'd seen Olivia tortured and killed. I'd tried to save her, but I hadn't gotten there in time, and then I'd been hit with the torture curse. Neville Longbottom saved me.

Brianne and Brenda had been sent off to Hogsmeade, but I was seventeen I stayed to help fight. Many students were there who shouldn't have returned, and for a while there, I was protecting a few third years. I didn't know how we'd all gotten out of it. And then to my dismay, toward the end, I saw that Tasha was there. She shouldn't have been there, but she'd had a DA coin, and she convinced my second cousin whom she was staying with to bring her to help. Thankfully she was okay, but I hadn't wanted her there. She was muggle-born, she shouldn't have been there.

"I still don't think she is okay," Nick continued. "I almost miss the old Gretchen."

"You wouldn't be the same either if you'd seen me tortured and killed, though," I said. "I still feel guilty about Olivia, and we weren't close. None of us are the same."

"Seeing that fourth-year killed didn't help," Nick said with a sigh. "She'd be starting her sixth year right now. I still think about her at times, and I didn't even know her name. She was someone I never knew, and yet I think about her all the time. None of those kids should have come back. Colin should never have been there."

Colin Creevey had been a boy in our year, but he'd died as well. We hadn't known about it until we saw him dead in the Great Hall later on. He'd fought with us, though, and he'd put up a good battle. He'd always been a bit annoying, but he was brave at the end. He'd told us to go on, and that he'd meet up with us later on, but he'd never shown up. We'd thought that he was still just fighting, but he'd been killed. I often wondered when it happened. Nick was right, though. He was muggle-born and underage. He shouldn't have been there.

"I still sometimes think he sacrificed himself for us," Nick continued. "Why else did he tell us to go? We were fighting together, and yet he wanted us to go after that Death Eater. Said he'd take care of the one we were fighting together."

"I've wondered that too," I said. "He was found out in the grounds."

There was a loud knock on the door, causing us both to jump. I was glad for the interruption. I hated to think or talk about the war. Hoping it was Tasha, I turned and headed over to the door quickly. Opening it, I grinned down at my beautiful girlfriend who I leaned down to kiss instantly.

"You two haven't unpacked?" Gretchen asked with wide eyes.

"We're working on it," I said as I pulled away from Tasha.

"Guess we showed up at the right time," Tasha said. "Between the five of us, we should be able to get everything unpacked."

"Great, after unpacking my stuff, I get to help these two," Gretchen said, rolling her eyes, but she was smiling.

I stepped back to let them. Samaira's mouth dropped open as she gazed around.

"We did show up at the right time," she said. "You two don't know what you're doing. Why are those vases on the couch?"

Thankfully, it was true, with the three girls there, things did go a lot more smoothly. They had a touch for organization that we didn't. By the time we were done, the place actually looked quite cozy.

"Are you sure you don't want to live with us?" I asked Tasha as I pulled her into my lap. "We may need a woman's touch around here."

"No, I think I'm enjoying living with the girls," she responded, happily before she kissed me.

"If you two hadn't decided to shag up, we'd all be living together," Nick said, cracking open a butterbeer. "We planned that back in fourth year, and yet here we are, just Barry and I living as bachelors. You can be our maid if you'd like."

"And I wonder why he's single," Gretchen giggled from the floor.

"Are you offering?" Nick asked her.

It said a lot that he could with her that way. There was a time when all of us boys would react in disgust when it came to her. However, the change in her was so drastic that even Philip, our old dorm mate, who loathed her could joke with her that way as well. She just grinned up at him before sitting back against the couch.

"We're going to need more furniture if people are going to be over here," Nick said to me while Samaira took the middle spot on the couch.

"We will; I still have a couple of chairs left in my room. I think we can make them fit in here," I responded as I took in the leftover space. "And maybe we can get some of those fold-out chairs as well. Those can be put away. Philip and Ivan said they'd likely stop by as well sometimes."

"Can you believe we're actually on our own?" Samaira asked. "Right now, we'd still be on the train on our way to Hogwarts. Instead, we have to go to work," and she made a face at that.

"I don't start until mid-next week," I said happily. "I can sit back and relax while you lot are slaving away."

"I can't believe I start on Friday," Nick said as he rolled his eyes. "Why couldn't orientation wait until Monday?"

"I can't believe most of you managed to go all summer without having to work," Gretchen said. "I was expected at St. Mungos training right away."

"But I thought Healer training started every six months," Tasha said. "I looked into it. You should have started today."

"I'm training to be a nurse," Gretchen reminded her.

Originally, Gretchen was going to be a Healer until she'd realized just exactly what it entailed.

"They take nurses on whenever. The training isn't as extensive," Gretchen responded. "There is still a lot we need to know. I don't think I could actually handle the Healing aspect of it. We lost a patient recently. That was hard enough with training, but knowing that was my patient? I couldn't do it."

"Ben wants to be a Healer," I said. "Slughorn mentioned it to him during one of the classes, and it's been on his mind since."

"That kid can do it for sure," Nick said. "He's so smart."

"But he might not be able to handle it emotionally," I said. "I think Ben can do whatever he sets his mind to, but the problem is that he works too hard, and he doesn't let himself play anymore. He hasn't been a normal kid for years, and I think one day it's going to catch up with him and he will lose it. I tried talking to him in the summer about it, but you know him. He is stubborn."

"So then he really is your brother," Gretchen said. "You're stubborn as well, Barry. Always have been. All of you Hoofer's are. I think Brenda is probably the most stubborn, but all four of you have that in you. I remember in first year when you'd basically lose it if you were behind. Ben doesn't sound so different."

"Ben is more of an intense Barry," Tasha said. "He's almost like the three of them combined actually. He is a sweet kid, but he can be serious and uptight like Brenda, but he's also like Barry. I think he picked up on all three of their personalities."

"Shame we didn't get to know him," Samaira said. "I've always thought Brianne is a sweetheart."

"I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to meet him on the holidays," I said.

Though I was confident when I said this, I didn't realize just how much real life would take up a lot of my time.

* * *

As soon as I started work, it seemed I suddenly didn't have have time. How did adults do this all the time? How did my parents do it with four kids? Though mum stayed home now, there was a time when both my parents worked and yet they had time for us as well. I thought once I was done school, I'd work during the day and have plenty of time in the evenings. There would be no homework, after all.

I was very wrong about this. Once the day ended, I still had work to bring home with me. I was training at the moment, and there was so much paperwork I had to read over and sign. Eventually, I would have to take a test when training ended to see how much knowledge I gained. I had to pass with flying colours; otherwise, I would have to go through training again. If I couldn't pass the second time around, I would have to find another job.

It was why when a letter came from Ben, I couldn't respond to it right away. I couldn't help but roll my eyes when I read through it. He'd managed to get with the girl he liked, though I wasn't surprised by that. I did find it ironic as well that he was going through the same thing I had with Olivia, though she was much worse than Melanie. His problem was so obvious, though. All he needed to do was break up with her. She was making him choose between his girlfriends and her.

I did mean to write to him, but the test was coming up so quickly, and I forgot about it after I set the letter aside and began reading. Nick had his own training as well, and there were some evenings when we didn't speak at all. Sometimes I didn't even have time for my own girlfriend. So, it wasn't really my fault that I couldn't respond to what Ben thought was a crisis when it was actually quite minor. For a smart kid, he certainly could be thick at times.

"Feels like we could be back at school," Nick said with a sigh one evening. "I can't wait until the real work starts. I didn't think training would be so intense."

"Same," I said as I put down my quill. "All we need is the flat full, and Brenda watching me to see if I am going to mess up."

"As odd as it sounds, I kind of miss that," Nick said.

"I would think so," I responded with some annoyance as I thought about the year before.

"Are you ever going to forgive me for dating her?" Nick asked. "I've explained it to you several times. We connected while she tutored me on Arithmancy, and you had your own thing going on last year, especially once you had the guts to for Tasha. We were both lonely and grieving, and it helped. And as much as you don't want to admit it, I helped her. She was a complete mess before we got together."

"I know you did," I responded.

"Then you need to get stop getting annoyed anytime the topic comes up mate," Nick answered. "Because she was a wreck last year, but I helped her move on. And you should know that I respected her the entire time. I only broke up with her because we were growing apart, and I was leaving Hogwarts. It was a mutual decision."

"I know," I repeated. "You're right, I'm sorry. It's just any time I think of my sisters dating, I get annoyed, and it was my best friend with her last year. It was bad enough with Darren."

"We never did anything beyond snogging," Nick said. "Brenda is a smart girl. I think she's the smartest out of the four of you when it comes to dating, to be honest."

"Wait what?" I asked distractedly now.

What did he mean by that? Did he mean that Brianne wanted to shag or even Ben? They were both way too young! Neither had ever said anything about it to me, and Ben talked to me quite a bit when it came to girls. He'd told me all about how he wanted to snog different girls, but he'd never mentioned shagging. Did that mean my brother and sister had mentioned it to Nick?

"Do you mean to say that Brianne and Ben want to shag?" I finally asked.

"Not that I know of," Nick said. "But you yourself caught Brianne snogging a random bloke last year. That wasn't her first, and you know it. What I mean is, Brenda will always want to be in a close relationship with someone before she even considers it. I know you hate this kind of discussion about your little sister, but Brenda has never shagged. That being said, I doubt Brianne has either, but she does snog casually. I get the feeling that Ben is going to be the same as you. He'll shag too young without emotional attachment as well. To be honest, my relationship with Brenda was more of a close friendship than it was a real relationship. We were just there for each other. So I wish you'd finally forgive me for last year so that we can move on."

"I forgive you," I told him.

"Then, like I said, please stop getting annoyed with me when we talk about Brenda. After all, you're the one who brought her up this time," Nick said.

I was about to tell him I knew when an owl flew in from the open balcony door. Though it was now early October, it was actually still slightly warm, and the flat got hot quickly. The owl flew over to me, and I wondered who could be writing to me. I realized it was Ben, and I felt guilty that I'd forgotten to write back to his last letter. I was hoping the problem had resolved itself. As I opened the letter, I realized that I'd forgotten his birthday as well. He was now thirteen.

"Who is it from?" Nick asked as I skimmed over the letter.

"Ben," I answered. "Girlfriend problems. She is getting all jealous about him hanging out with Ellen and Ashley, especially Ashley. I don't understand why he doesn't just dump her."

"He's thirteen," Nick said. "They don't exactly have much sense at that age, do they? Look at what happened with Olivia. You didn't dump her right away when she got jealous over your sister."

"I'll write to him tomorrow," I said as I set the letter aside. "I really need to study for this test. Sometimes I wish I could be that age again where my biggest stress was girls. He is a smart kid, though; he'll figure it out."

"I don't know about that," Nick said. "Didn't he nearly lose Ashley last year because he fancied her sister?"

"And it resolved itself," I responded.

"Well, true, but I think Ben is going to be a bigger idiot than you were. You would never choose a girl over Tasha," Nick said.

"Not true," I said. "I ignored her when Romilda Vane showed interest in me, remember?"

"But you came to your senses, and you realized that you were going to lose her," Nick said.

"But I was sixteen. Ben is only thirteen, and he learned his lesson. I'm hoping Melanie will be a learning experience for him as well," I said. "I certainly learned from Olivia. I'm starting to think Tasha was right. First and second years shouldn't date. I even told him that last year, but remember how annoyed we got with her for telling us we were too young?"

"But we're also not thirteen anymore," Nick reminded me. "To us, thirteen is too young, but to them, it's not. Remember when we thought that a kiss sealed the deal?"

I began to laugh. I remembered giving Nick that very advice. I'd told him that the relationship wasn't official unless you kissed. Nick joined in moments later. To be young and innocent again. I would think my brother would be more worried about the Tournament than girls, but he was different from me. If only we were there this time. I had a feeling it would be more carefree for him than it had been for us, but I was glad about that.

-  
Unfortunately, I forgot about Ben again the next day. It was the day of the big test, and my little brother was the furthest thing on my mind. All I wanted to do was pass the test, and then finally celebrate with my girlfriend, who I'd barely had enough time for. I'd thought having her in the same building would make things easier for both of us, but it wasn't. She usually had to be in bed early and to work early. We often only got to visit on weekends and just an hour or two a day during the weekdays.

I was happy to get a good luck message from her that morning, and it was what got me to the Ministry that morning with confidence instead of nerves. I couldn't wait until we could spend a proper night together. I'd thought being grown-up meant we would be able to, but so far, it wasn't working as well as I'd hoped.

I wasn't the only one who had to sit the test that day. There were a few others there that day as well. Some from my old class and there were some older people too.

"Good luck Barry," Eileen, a former Gryffindor girl, said to me as we sat down at a table.

"You too," I told her.

I'd never really talked to her at Hogwarts, and even at work, but it was nice to have familiar faces with me. Seeing some of my old classmates at times made me feel like I was back at Hogwarts. I missed the castle so much sometimes, it hurt. Last year, I'd wanted to leave so much to start my life, and now I wanted the cozy nights in the common room back.

Sighing, I shook my head and tried to focus as our Head handed the test out. I certainly hoped all my studying had paid off. I'd barely slept the night before. It almost felt like fifth-year or even last year all over again.

-  
"You passed?" Tasha asked excitedly.

"I passed!" I said excitedly as I rushed forward to hug her.

She'd been waiting for me outside of my department. I picked her up and spun her around. She let out a squeal of laughter. Once I set her down, I leaned down to kiss her.

"Now, hopefully, we'll have more time for us," I said. "This weekend we should have a party at the flat. We'll invite the old crowd, and it can be like old times. Maybe I can see if I can get a hold of the cousins."

"Well, I don't have anything going on tonight," Tasha said. "Let's go out for dinner after work. I can let Nick know and-"

"No," I interrupted. "Let's just have it the two of us. We can go out for dinner, and maybe rent a room at the Leaky. We haven't been just you and me for ages. We can celebrate with Nick later."

Tasha grinned up at me.

"Ah, I see what you have in mind for celebrating," she said, giggling. "I'll let the girls know I won't be home tonight."

"And I'll let Nick know," I responded.

I had silencing charms on my room so that we could have gone back to my flat, or hers. However, I wanted no interruptions at all. Even if we went back to one of our flats, we'd still be surrounded by people until we could escape. She seemed to be thinking the same as I was.

"We'll meet here at the end of the day?" She asked me.

"At the Leaky, if we can," I said. "I'd like to pop in at home to let mum and dad know. They'll be wondering as well."

Tasha nodded. "I'll rent a room then. I should stop off at my flat to get some clothes anyway. I'll see you later, Barry," and then she winked at me.

"Looking forward to it," I called after her as she turned to walk off.

I couldn't wait for the day to move forward after that, but unfortunately, there was still quite a bit to do. Since I'd passed, they had to move me into my own cubicle, and then set me to catch up on all the projects they'd been working on so far. And there were a lot. So much for things settling down. I knew they would likely want me to do extra reading when I went home that night, but I wasn't going to do it. I would try to do what I could that day and catch up tomorrow. All I wanted to do was celebrate with my girlfriend. Likely that would be considered a bad attitude to start off my career, but for one night, I didn't care.


	3. Chapter 3

Mum became all weepy when I told her that I'd passed. Dad already knew as my Head of Department had already told him. They wanted me to stay for dinner and perhaps invite Nick and Tasha, but I shook my head. We were in the living-room, which felt a bit odd without my siblings around. Usually, at least Ben or Brianne would be in living-room with my parents, but they were obviously all at Hogwarts.

"I'm celebrating with Tasha tonight," I told them. "We're renting a hotel room."

"Why in the world would you rent a room when you could always come here?" Mum asked me.

"Mum… I'm going to be nineteen," I told her as my face reddened. "You know what I'm going to be doing with my girlfriend."

I hated the fact that I even had to imply this to my mother.

"Barry, I wasn't born yesterday," she told me. "I expected as much, but none of the kids are here, and we won't bother you. I just don't understand why you're paying money for a room when-"

"Barb," my dad and he shook his head before glancing at me.

"Mum, that is just awkward for me," I said. "We're just going to get a room at the Leaky. We just want to be alone; otherwise, we'd go back to one of our flats."

"Well, then, I want a Sunday night dinner this weekend," mum responded. "It's your first job as an adult."

"Fine. I only came to let you two know that I passed," I said.

"Barry, before you go, I'd like to talk to you," dad said to me. "I won't keep you long," he added as I let out a sigh. "I promise."

Mum excused herself quickly, and dad beckoned for me to sit down on the couch. I sat down, wondering precisely what he wanted to talk to me about. I knew Tasha was likely waiting, and I still had to stop by the flat quickly to pack an overnight bag. Whatever it was, I hoped it would be quick.

"It's about you and Tasha," dad said. "Look, I get you two are intimate and all-"

"Dad, are you seriously having the sex talk with me?" I interrupted. "We've had this conversation more than once. Remember, we had it after my third year, and I even told you the first time I shagged, and you gave it to me again. I hate admitting this to my father of all people, but I've shagged quite a few times. I'm almost nineteen, after all. I'm living on my own, and I've been with Tasha for almost a year."

"Yes, yes, Barry, I know," dad said with a sigh. "But at times young people starting out forget all that. I know you've been smart for the most part. And as much we welcome any grandchildren, I want you to remember that you're likely not ready for a baby. Both yours and Tasha's careers are just starting. You wouldn't want to get her pregnant now, though I do have full faith in both of you that you'd manage."

"Dad, we're both always careful," I said. "We both know we're not ready to be parents yet. We don't have time for each other, let alone for a kid."

"And I hope you remember that. I've never told any of you kids, but your mother and I did have a scare when we were about your age. We were in the same situation. We were sharing flats with our mates, and we were starting our careers. Thankfully, we weren't pregnant, but it was a stressful time for us and a learning lesson. Please just be careful until your both ready," dad said. "I know this is uncomfortable for you to discuss with me, but I know you want your career going before you have kids."

"We'll be fine," I told dad. "Thanks for the talk. I do appreciate it, but I promise that we are always careful."

"Good, well, I won't hold you up any longer then," dad said, and then he stood up. "I'll see you on Sunday."

"Thanks," I said, standing up as well.

I was relieved that the talk was over. I hoped it would be the last one. I wanted to tell him that it should be Ben he needed to talk to, but I didn't say a word. I just left the room, calling goodbye quickly. As soon as I was in our front entrance, I turned on the spot to apparate to my bedroom in the flat.

I paused for a moment, listening to see if Nick was home. However, I didn't hear anything, so I quickly packed an overnight bag before apparating to Diagon Alley to meet up with my beautiful girlfriend. And though I didn't want it to stick with me, my conversation with dad was still on my mind. He was right; we most definitely weren't ready for a kid.

* * *

Thankfully, after the first couple of weeks after the test, things did settle down for me at work. Unfortunately, Eileen had to go through training again, and my other classmates had decided not to go through the training again. So I was the youngest in my department. Most people were at least five or more years older than me, and it was hard to relate to them.

At Hogwarts, it had been easy to relate to the older kids, but my co-workers had families and kids while I was fresh from school. So most of the time, I didn't really talk to any of them unless it was work-related. I knew obviously that's why I was there, but my parents had told me that they'd met some good friends at work as well. For the most part, I just talked to Nick, Tasha, or some of my classmates who worked there if we saw each other.

It wasn't until close to the end of October when I realized I hadn't written back to Ben, and I felt quite guilty about it. I'd never ignored him before, and I was sure it was getting to him. Now that I had more time, I sat down and wrote a long letter full of apologies, and then I decided to give him some advice as well to make up for ignoring him. I hoped that I was giving him some good advice.

"Just take him out for a boys night some time over the holidays," Nick told me as I sealed the letter. "He needs to learn on his own too, though. Why didn't he just go to your sisters about it?"

"I think he wanted an older blokes advice. There is no way he'd ever go to Brenda for girl advice, and Brianne's great, but she would probably get all giggly about it. She has been lately when he brings up girls. We all have a hard time seeing him as a teenager now, and not that six-year-old boy he used to be, particularly Brenda."

"Well, I hope you lot do remember he isn't six anymore," Tasha said. "You know how frustrated he gets over that, and you remember how annoying it was for us too. All the older kids, especially your cousins, always saw us as little kids. He's growing up, and he does need his big brother at times. He doesn't have someone older to look out for him like you did, Barry."

"I know," I said. "But now that I have more time, I should be able to write to him more. I'm all caught up at work, and the only major project they're worried about is at Hogwarts. Obviously, that's already hidden. My Head told me today that the most we'll be worried about right now are escaped dragons, apparently, that happens a lot. There is a Quidditch match coming up next February that I might be part of, though."

"You know, I'm still surprised you didn't do something to do with potions," Nick said. "You were always brilliant in that class, especially once Slughorn took over."

"Maybe later," I said. "But I can't imagine slaving away over a cauldron all the time. With my job, I'll get to travel sometimes. I feel freedom for the first time in my life. I see Potion's as more of a hobby."

"That's what I'd like to do too, and my Head told me in a couple of years, I can actually sign up to travel," Nick said. "After all that stress at Hogwarts and everything, I'm glad."

And soon, we were able to settle into a routine. Time, which had gone by so slowly at Hogwarts went by swiftly now. I remember thinking it took forever for the Christmas holidays to start, but it now seemed that we'd just had summer and the Ministry was preparing for the holidays.

I was hoping with them coming up that I'd be able to spend time with my little brother. Brenda and Brianne had written to tell me that they were staying for the holidays, but I wasn't that surprised. I'd stayed as well. They had important exams coming up, and it was better to study at school instead of at home.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the same holidays as I used to get. I would get some of Christmas off, and that was it. Since I was a rookie, I was put on duty for all of the holidays. It was the busiest time at the Ministry, especially in our department since so many people would be travelling. Thankfully, somehow, Nick was assigned to work with me even though he was an Obliviator. Sometimes our departments had to work together since we needed muggles memories erased. I knew basic memory charms by that point, but Nick knew them more.

"They know we're friends, so I think they did it to make up for it," Nick told me as we stood outside of the Leaky Cauldron in the freezing cold, on Christmas Eve of all nights.

"I just don't understand how they think the charms are suddenly going to fail," I said, shivering. "I wanted to have Christmas dinner with Tasha and my parents this year, but I only get a few hours off tomorrow."

"I don't think they necessarily think it's going to wear off," Nick told me. "I think it's because it's high traffic. I've never seen so many wizards go through here before. And it could be much worse, mate, Gretchen doesn't get any time off. She won't have time off until the second of January. We at least have a few hours to enjoy at home, and still get some sleep."

"That's true, and they are giving us a week off to make up for it," I responded. "I just would have liked to have spent some time with Ben. I'll make sure to arrange time at Easter for us. He'll be surrounded by the family tomorrow, and by the time I'd be able to get him alone, it will be time to come back here."

"But my superior told me that we'll likely only be doing this for a couple of years," Nick said. "Soon enough, there will be new rookies in our place, and we'll be getting drunk at Christmas even dinner. Unless of course, you Tasha and spit out some kids by then."

"Nope," I said as I rolled my eyes. "And I wouldn't be so smug, Nick. You might meet someone between now and then, and it might be you with the baby."

"Unless she's at the Ministry, I doubt it. They're all older too. Maybe you were right to meet the one at Hogwarts," Nick said. "Too bad Harry Potter snatched Ginny Weasley up. I just saw her the other day, and she's gotten even prettier since school. I've heard Anita is single, though. Maybe I'll look her up. I doubt you or Tasha care anymore."

"Mate, we've never cared," I told him. "You could have gone for her in fifth year as you wanted. Look her up if you want. I've heard Glenda and Lance are married now. They married right outside of Hogwarts apparently."

"Because they have a kid," Nick said. "So does John, but he's not with anyone. He got some girl pregnant. Hermione told me when I ran into her last week in the lunchroom. I kind of wonder if she was trying to get me to pass the message to you. She brought it up all on her own. Too bad she's with Weasley."

"Everyone knew they'd end up together," I said. "You'll meet someone, Nick. There is no rush, after all. You're turning nineteen soon, not thirty. My mum and dad said it's not often people get married young anyway."

"I'm not looking to marry mate, I just want to get my dick wet," he responded.

As he said this, a couple of young witches walked past us. One looked at him looking scandalized, while the other gave him a wink. They were both quite beautiful but were likely still at Hogwarts. I couldn't place them, but they looked school-aged, so I was assuming they went there unless they were foreign.

"Guess you can always go for pub hookups," I laughed once they were gone. "One of them looked interested."

"Looked underage, though," Nick said. "The other one looked ready to hit me. I've considered the old pub routine, but I'd rather just find a girlfriend. I may have to go down that route, but I'd rather not. It's a lot riskier finding a random at a pub than it was at Hogwarts. Maybe I'll look Anita up after the holidays. We always got along in school after all."

"I think she's fancied you since Glenda and I dated," I said. "She was disappointed when you were with that Ruby girl. At least now you're older, and you know what to do with a girl. At least I should hope you do," I added with a wink.

"I've had plenty of girlfriends as you should know," Nick responded. "You know, I actually saw her a couple of days ago. She was always a looker, but she certainly grew into her looks. She looks jaded now, though."

"Not too big of a surprise all things considering," I said. "I think anyone who is third year and older probably are. I'm just glad Ben has normal teen stresses, even if they are annoying."

Often I felt jealous of Ben because of that. I loved being a grown-up, even if I missed Hogwarts, but I'd like to be his age and just starting out. The war was behind us, and he could grow up rather innocent. He had memories of the battle, but nothing compared to what we all had.

The two of us fell into silence. I checked my watch and groaned inwardly. There were still so many hours before this boring duty ended. I couldn't wait until I was no longer the youngest member. I wanted to be with my family and not standing freezing my arse off while I watched happy people enter and exit the Leaky. I knew I had to pay my dues, though.

* * *

Both Brianne and Brenda kept me up to date on what was going on with the Tournament as time went on, but all of Ben's letters were full of stories about his friends and his latest girlfriend. The kid moved on quicker than I did. He was already with some girl named Claire. At first, I was annoyed that he was with a Parkinson, but he assured me that she hated her family. I found it odd that my brother seemed to have no interest in the tournament at all. He cared more about Quidditch which was still running. I wondered why that was. Last time, they'd cancelled it because it took up too much time.

He'd finally come to his senses about Michael and give him a good talking to. Apparently, they'd all gotten in a huge fight last September, but had made it up. According to him, they were all closer than ever. I couldn't help but notice he wrote more about Ashley than he did about the other two, though. It was why I was sure it was Ashley he'd end up with and not Ellen.

His latest letter told me this much. He was worried that Ellen was interested in him, and he was doing whatever it took to keep her at arm's length. I told my friends this one evening in March.

"I know this is going to make me sound bad, but if I were thirteen, I wouldn't be complaining about Ellen coming onto me," Nick said. "She's a cute little thing. You'd probably fancy her if you were thirteen."

"I would think she is cute, but I think she only wants Ben for his money," I said.

"To be fair, she is just twelve," Tasha said. "Kids that age can be dumb. By the time she's our age, she likely won't think like that. People change a lot between twelve and eighteen. I agree that it will probably be Ashley that Ben chooses, but I don't think Ellen is some gold digger."

"I don't know about that," I said. "But you could be right. I've heard her go on about the Hoofer money, though," and then I glanced at Nick. "Anyway, Michael is the one who wants Ellen, but she has no interest in him. Their group is all one big love triangle," I added with a grin. "Glad that never happened with us."

"I knew from the first day of school it was the two of you," Nick responded. "I always thought Tasha was cute, I'm only human, but that was it. It was obvious to everyone except you two. That is until third year when Tasha admitted to me that she liked you."

Tasha just grinned and shrugged. "I think it was long before that because I got jealous whenever Barry got a girlfriend, but I'm glad we waited until we were older. We were just dumb kids before."

"Barry used to be in so much denial," Nick said, laughing.

"Only because I didn't want to ruin our friendship," I said. "It's scary when you find out you're in love with your best friend. Even I had my suspicions that she liked me back, but that still scared me. Actually, that made it even scarier, and that's why it took us so long. I think it will be the same with Ben. I'm going to talk with him though if he doesn't do anything about it for a long time. Right now, they're second years, so I won't."

"What about you?" Tasha asked Nick. "I thought you were going to try and talk to Anita?"

"I did, and we went on a few dates, but nothing came from it. Actually, there is a cute girl in Magical Law that I have my eye. I may ask her out soon," Nick said. "We had to go on a job together after the MLE picked someone up. She had to do the paperwork, and I had to obliviate some muggles."

"Well, make sure you do!" Tasha said excitedly. "I want us to double date so bad, Nick! I have to admit, sometimes I hoped you and Samaira might get together again, but she's very serious with her boyfriend now. Or maybe even Gretchen, but I think her and Philip are going to last. I wish the time turners were still around so that I could go back and tell him that in our second year."

"That's what you'd use a time turner for?" Nick laughed. "Of all the things you could go back to, that's what you'd do."

"Among other things," Tasha responded. "But actually, I needed to talk to you two about that. Gretchen is planning to move in with Philip, and Samaira wants to move in with her boyfriend. They're waiting until the lease is up, but I thought maybe you two could move out of this place and move into mine. It's much bigger than this one," and she glanced at me. "And I think we're probably ready to live together, aren't we? We've been together longer than Gretchen and Philip, after all. You've got time to decide since it won't be until the summer, but I can't afford that place on my own. Unless you two want to stay here."

"I'm about over this place," Nick said as he glanced around. "And I'm getting a raise soon. With the three of us, we should be able to afford it."

To be honest, I was ready to ask Tasha to move in with us, but I much preferred to live in her place. It was so cramped with the two of us in this place most of the time, and for some reason, everyone always wanted to hang out at our flat instead of the girls. So it was much harder to move around. At Tasha's place, I could have all of my things there. In the end, I'd had to take a lot of my stuff back to my old room, where it just sat in boxes.

"I'm all for it," I finally said when I realized they were both waiting on my answer. "It's a three-bedroom, so we have more storage room, and we could always try and find another roommate if we need to."

"How did the three of you afford that place anyway?" Nick asked. "Sometimes, we can barely afford this place along with groceries. If Barry hadn't gotten a raise, I don't think we'd make rent, or else we'd have to ask our parents."

"Gretchen's dad put in a big deposit," Tasha explained. "And I don't mean just the first and last month's deposit. He put in enough that we lived for free for the first few months. I asked Gretchen if it was okay that we keep the place since it was because of her we got it. She doesn't mind, though. Philip wants her to live at his place, and it's closer to work for her anyway. Samaira doesn't care where she lives, but they both knew I'd want to stay here with you two. So it was they who proposed to me that I should convince you two to move in with me."

"I'm fine with it, but if you two want a place of your own, I could always stay here," Nick said.

"We have plenty of time for it to be just us," I told him. "For now, it's more affordable for us to all live together. You can't afford this place by yourself."

"Of course, you should live with us," Tasha added quickly. "We told you last year that you're never to feel like a third wheel. We're still all friends, and our relationship shouldn't change that. We've always said we'd all live together. The only reason we didn't right away was because Barry and I were scared to live together so soon into our relationship, but we've been together long enough now."

"Good, because I didn't really want to live on my own yet," Nick said with a smile. "So come this summer, we'll be roommates then."

"Yes, and maybe you'll find a girlfriend by then!" Tasha said excitedly.

"I'm not living with a girlfriend right away," Nick replied. "But maybe we could find someone from Hogwarts to live with us. Does anyone ever talk to Luna? She'd be fun to live with."

"Luna is travelling," Tasha said. "She writes me time to time about her travels. She's looking for magical creatures."

"I'd forgotten she wants to be a Naturalist," I said. "If anyone is good at it, she will be. Tell her to visit when she is back in Britain, though."

"I already have," Tasha said with a smile. "And she said she's glad we're still together. She said she probably would if she has time. Actually, she said it's so nice to have friends she can visit when she comes home. I'm glad she finally sees us that way. It took her long enough."

"She started to come around in sixth year," I said. "That's when people stopped bothering her as much, and we all rallied around her last year too. In her defense though, with people always stealing her things and making fun of her, she had a hard time being so trusting. Now she knows she can."

"When she's in town, that's when we should have a reunion," Nick said with a smile. "Try to invite as many people as we can. Think your parents would be okay with that?" He added to me.

"You know they will," I said.

We began making plans for a Hogwarts reunion and for the upcoming summer when the three of us would be roommates. I was quite looking forward to it all. It would be the three of us around each other full time just like it had been back in the day. I missed it a lot, and I figured we should take advantage of it before we all really began moving on with our lives. Someday, Nick would meet a girl who he would fall for and eventually, they'd want to live together. So I wanted the time for when we were still young and carefree.

* * *

I arranged a boy's night when Ben came home for Easter. He'd written to me the day he came back to tell me that Claire had dumped him through a letter. Deciding to do what the cousins had done for me, I decided to invite him over for a weekend that both Nick and I had off. I figured the others could come by to visit as well, and they could really meet him. They'd heard me talk about him enough, but they'd only seen glimpses of him the year before. This way he could have a weekend with us, and he wouldn't have to sneak in or out of anywhere.

When dad dropped him off, I was just tidying up after work. Nick wasn't home yet, and Tasha was down in her flat. I stared at my little brother with shock. He'd changed so much since last summer. He'd grown inches, but he looked so much more mature now. He no longer had a childish look to him. He was slowly turning from a boy to a man. I didn't think I'd matured that much at thirteen.

"Blimey, you've grown," I finally said as he set his bag down on our small kitchen table.

"Quite the place you have here," Ben said as he looked around. "I can't wait until I have my own place. We'll probably do what you're doing as well, and just live together."

I didn't respond right away. Ben's voice had started to change somewhat last summer, but it was definitely different now. He no longer had a little boy's voice. Had my voice changed that much too at thirteen? During my years at Hogwarts, I always noticed how much he grew, but this was a more significant change. My brother was officially going through puberty.

"We'll be moving into Tasha's flat in the summer," I said as I gazed around. "So don't get used to this place. Her roommates are moving out, and her place is bigger. So we're moving out."

"I don't know why you didn't do that in the first place," Ben said sitting down.

"Because Tasha and I weren't ready to live together," I told him. "If we were still friends then it would be different. It's another story when you're a couple."

Ben nodded. "I guess so," he said with a shrug. "So still going strong then?"

"Yes, but I'm sorry about you and your girlfriends. You're just thirteen, though," I said. "Someday you'll look back and laugh at all this."

"Claire was a great girl, but I'm not that fussed," Ben told me. "I was more upset that she chose to dump me by a letter. We were snogging the night before, and then I wake up to board the train, and I get a letter from her telling me that she's in love with Morgan. I don't get why she didn't just do it that night."

"Girls can be a mystery at times, mate," I told him.

"I don't think that's a girl thing, though," Ben replied. "I think it's just cowardly. Ashley said some bloke did it to her mum once."

"And how is she doing?"

Apparently, she'd had some kind of breakdown when her boyfriend had broken up with her. Ben certainly had a harder time with girls than I had. His ex Melanie had broken Ashley and her boyfriend up because she blamed Ashley for their break up. She did some psycho thing where she took pictures of Ashley sitting beside other blokes and then sent them to Denver, Ashley's ex. Not even Olivia had been that mad.

"She's a lot stronger," Ben told me. "And she even told Melanie off on the last day of school. Melanie still thinks it her fault that we broke up. She can't seem to get that it was her mad behaviour that we did. And get this," Ben said, his face lighting up now. "Ashley managed to get Moaning Myrtle to haunt Melanie. You know Myrtle, that ghost that cries all the time."

"That's amazing," I said, laughing. "She usually enjoys mocking students though, so it probably didn't take much. You haven't said much about the tournament, though."

Ben shrugged. "The tasks can be fun, but the older kids don't pay much attention to us. We're hoping for a Hogwarts win, but I don't think it will be. I'm more concerned about Quidditch. Ellen is such a great Chaser, but I don't think we'll win."

"Does she still fancy you?" I asked as I began to make us some drinks.

I figured it was late enough in the evening, and later on, we'd be able to order in when Nick came home. I made Ben's a light drink. I didn't want him to be throwing up as I had been. I wanted him just to get buzzed slowly, but something told me he'd had more than the glasses of wine I'd given him over time. By that point, he'd probably had a real drink.

I turned to set the drink on the table, and then I joined him. Ben rolled his eyes.

"Yes, and I don't know what to do without hurting her feelings. She is dating someone, and it's like she wants to make me jealous of their relationship. Actually, I know that's what she is trying to do," Ben said. "And then there is Tara. The blokes in my year tell me that I shouldn't get upset over it, but sometimes it can be too much. I don't even know what is so special about me," he added as he opened his arms and then shrugged. "I'm just a random bloke."

"The boys in my year used to tell me the same thing," I said. "But at least you know you'll never lack dates. It can be annoying sometimes, but you know who to go for and who not to."

"Tara never gets the hint," Ben told me. "I've told her no to her face, and it seems to make her more persistent."

"Maybe you can throw her a bone and give her a random snog," I joked.

"No, she'd probably be worse than Melanie," Ben said, making a face and then laughed. "I think I am going to take Jared's advice though, and just snog random girls. I've told you about him, haven't I?"

And then he began telling me about his dorm mates though I'd already heard it all before. I loved it, however. I listened to him talk with a small smile on my face. He was talking about Quidditch when Nick apparated into his bedroom. We heard the crack, which made Ben jump.

"It's just Nick," I told him. "We apparate directly into our rooms."

Moments later, Nick entered the room, unloosening his tie.

"Hello, Benny boy," he said with a smile. "Blimey, you look so much like Barry now. There have always been similarities, but you can definitely see it now. You're so much taller too. Hard to believe it's the same kid I used to give piggybacks to all the time."

"You could try now, but it probably won't be the same," Ben said with a grin.

"I figured we'd order out for muggle food," I told Nick. "Tasha and the other girls will be here soon. Chances are they'll be bringing the blokes as well."

"So, is it a party here almost every weekend?" Ben asked, eagerly.

"Not every weekend," Nick responded as he stretched, and the stood up. "Some weekends we have to work, or we have to bring our work with us. We made sure our schedules were clear for you, mate. Anyway, I'll go across the road and grab some pizza."

"Why would you have to bring work home with you?" Ben asked.

"Paperwork or future projects," I explained before I turned to Nick. "Do you need any muggle money?"

"I have some," Nick said. "I had to work in a muggle neighbourhood today, so I exchanged for some. I'll be back. Maybe they'll have some ready-made pizzas."

After Nick left, the girls, Philip and Ivan, showed up. They knew they didn't have to knock, so they just entered while Ben and drank some butterbeer and talked. I wanted him to pace himself, though he admitted that he'd had a couple of drinks by that point. He was in the middle of telling me that Ashley didn't want any when the others showed up.

"Oh my goodness, you are Barry all over again," Samaira exclaimed excitedly. "You could be Barry at thirteen!"

"Ben is cuter, I think," Gretchen said, which caused Philip to glare at her. "Seriously, Philip? He's a kid, but anyone can tell he is better looking," and then she looked at me. "Not that you aren't good looking, but I think Ben will be cuter when is older."

Philip continued to glare at her and then he took a seat at the table. I never thought I'd see the day when he'd get jealous when it came to Gretchen. It still surprised me to see them together at times. I wondered what Luna would think of it all.

Ben was just looking from each of them with confusion before he looked at me. He smirked, and then he picked up his mug of butterbeer and then took a sip. Others were hiding their smirks as well. Tasha came around the table, sit beside me.

"Nick should be back soon with food," I said to break the silence. "He's just grabbing some pizza."

"Again?" Tasha asked, laughing. "Do you two ever eat anything else," and then she looked at Ben. "I swear they can't even cook. Half the time, they order out."

"We don't always order out," I said, rolling my eyes. "I made you some very nice blood pudding just last week," and then I looked at Ben. "She's just trying to make me look back."

"More like he heated it up, but okay," Tasha said, giggling. "They love to live like bachelors. All of that will change in the summer."

"And they'll probably be grateful for it," Samaira said before turning back to Ben. "So, tell us the going ons at Hogwarts. What is the latest gossip?"

Ben grinned and then began telling her. Despite the fact he claimed his life had so much drama, I think he enjoyed talking about it. I honestly hoped he would have a fun weekend with us.

* * *

As time went on, my Head, Madam Runtkin, seemed to be impressed with all the work I was putting in, and she gave me another raise. She told me it was rare for kid fresh out of Hogwarts to put in so much work and effort, and I was given more jobs to do. I just hoped it meant I wouldn't have to do the rookie work anymore, such as standing outside the Leaky at Christmas.

Though I worried it would make me look bad, I decided to ask this.

"We're getting more people from Hogwarts next year," Madam Runtkin told me. "If enough stay, I don't believe we'll need you for Christmas, but I can't make any promises. As you grow through the department, however, you'll be working on more projects and chances are we won't need you. That being said, Christmas can be a busy time for all the departments, so unfortunately, not everyone can be at home with their families. Believe me, I understand. I once had to do that as well, young Barry. The Tri-Wizard Tournament also will be gone by next year, so there won't be as many foreigners around. You should have seen it around here when we had the World Cup, and then the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and… other instances happened. It was mad around here."

"I can only imagine," I responded with a small smile. Dad had told me a lot about it. "Could I nip over to my girlfriend's department to let her know?"

By that point, my co-workers and my Head knew about Tasha. Madam Runtkin was quite lenient when it came to spouses or significant others visiting, or us visiting them. That was, as long as it didn't interfere with our work. Not much was happening that day, so I was hoping it would be okay. She smiled and gave me a small nod.

"Of course," she responded. "Just don't be too long. I'll leave your next project on your desk. This one is for the next Quidditch match, and it will be outside of a muggle town. You'll have a lot of work to put in, young Barry. And we'll be assigning you to work with Nick. If you do well with this, we may start letting you be in charge of other projects. You'll need to meet with the Head of Department of Sports after you read through it all. They'll brief you on everything, and you'll go to Caleb Priano for most of it, but for the most part, you are in charge."

Usually, I had to work with Caleb Priano as he was the one who'd trained me. We'd worked together on most of the projects, including the last Quidditch match I'd been assigned to. I was shocked that I was basically in charge, though. Caleb and Madam Runtkin had told me that I probably wouldn't have my own projects until my second year there.

Excited, I rushed off to tell Tasha the good news. I was hoping I'd run into dad as well. It was hard to believe that I was actually moving up in my career already despite the fact that I hadn't been there a year. I wasn't missing Hogwarts as much as I used to knowing that. Sure, there were times when I thought about the fun nights in the common room, but I was going to be living with my girlfriend very soon, and I was moving up at work.

I was finally growing up.


	4. Chapter 4

The years moved swiftly by. One moment, I was a nineteen-year-old kid, and the next thing I knew, I was in my early twenties. Eventually, Nick, Tasha and I upgraded to Diagon Alley rather than the flat in the muggle neighbourhood. The three of us were making so much more money. I was given more and more work projects. I was successful with that first one, and after that, I was given harder stuff to work on.

Brianne was finishing up her seventh year when my parents decided that they wanted the whole family to go on a trip together. Part of me wanted to invite Tasha as well, but I knew they wanted it to be us Hoofers. Ben was about to start his fifth year (as odd as that was), and so I think they wanted one more trip with just us before we all started our real lives for good.

I wanted to talk to Ben about a few things anyway. For the past few months, all I could think about was finally asking Tasha to marry me. We'd been together for almost five years, and we'd lived together for nearly four. I felt it was finally time to take the next step with her together. I loved Nick as a brother, but it wasn't him I wanted up there with me. It was the little boy who had slowly grown into a man whom I wanted with me. So I was going to ask him to be my best man. Though Nick would be a Groomsman along with Philip and Ivan, who I'd maintained a close friendship with, Tasha would likely want Samaira, Gretchen and probably Luna too.

I was ahead of myself, though. I still had to buy the ring and propose to her. I had quite a good savings though I wished that I had the trust fund. I wanted more than anything to buy her an expensive engagement ring, but I knew she would prefer simple anyway. I'd debated for a long time about asking Nick to go with me, but it ended up being a solo trip.

When I did find the ring, it was almost instantly. I'd expected to be pouring over rings for over an hour, but I found it right away in the jewelry store. I felt relieved once I had it paid for, and it was in my pocket. Now all I had to do was talk to Ben and then give him some best man's advice.

I waited until we could have some time to ourselves at the cabin my parents rented. Brianne and Brenda were both on the beach tanning, so I beckoned for my not so little brother to follow me into the water. He was my height now, and Gretchen's prediction over two years ago had come true. Though we looked the same, he was a lot better looking, and he would likely continue to grow more attractive.

"Still seems odd to me that you're going to be a fifth year," I said to Ben once we were up to our knees in the water. "I still remember when you were about to start first year. You'd been so nervous back then."

"I still remember when you were about to start your first year," Ben said, grinning over at me. "I'd been so jealous, and I was upset because you were leaving. You just saw me as a brat. It felt like it felt forever for me to go to Hogwarts."

"I still see you as a brat," I responded, laughing, and then I reached up to pat his head. "A much taller brat, but you're still a brat."

Ben grinned over at me.

"Did you imagine ten years ago that you'd be with Tasha?" Ben asked me, and I wondered if he would ask advice about Ashley, who I knew he was in love with. I decided to bring it up to see how he would respond.

"No, I was in denial about her for years, just as you've been in denial about Ashley," I said to him. "When Tasha and I met, she was just this little girl who was terrified of the wizarding world. Her parents had practically disowned her, well they still basically have. She almost left, you know. She just wanted them to love her, but Nick and I convinced her not to. We told her that even if her parents treated her differently if she went back to the muggle world, she'd resent them in the end."

I remembered her bringing that up in the fourth year, and I remembered feeling devastated by it. Nick and I'd done everything we could to convince her to stay, and thankfully she did. If she hadn't, I'd have found her eventually and would have still asked her to marry me, even if she was with someone else.

"I don't understand how parents can just give up on their kids like that," Ben said. "If I ever have kids, I will always love them."

"Some people are just heartless," I answered, feeling the rage I usually did when it came to her parents. As far as I knew, they hadn't spoken for over a year or more. "It's fine. Tasha knows that my family is her family. She got over it years ago."

The last bit I wasn't so sure of, but Ben didn't need to know that.

"So, you do see her as the one you'll marry?" Ben asked, and I was glad he brought it up.

I smiled over at him.

"I've bought the ring," I responded and then reached into my swimming trunks pocket to pull out the ring. "It's why I asked you to come over here with me. I wanted to tell you first. I'm not going to tell Brianne or Brenda until after I ask her. I haven't even told Nick yet."

Ben looked at me in surprise as I opened the box to show it to him. I could see the excitement in his eyes.

"Why me?" Ben asked. "I thought for sure Nick would be the first to know at least."

"Because I want you to be the best man," I explained. "Nick is my best friend, and he always will be, but it's you that I want standing up there with me. He'll be a groomsman. but it's you, my brother, I want with me that day."

"I'm surprised and touched," Ben said widely, beaming now. I noticed there were tears in his eyes, which he tried to blink back. I pretended not to notice. "Of course, I'll be your best man Barry."

Relieved that we had that settled, I decided to advise him about Ashley. All of us knew he loved her. He likely had for years.

"And I wanted to give you my best man a piece of advice. I don't want any protesting either Ben," I added before he could, "because even if you don't know it, I know you love Ashley. I think you should make your move on her when you can," he continued. "I took my chance with Tasha after years of denial, and now I am going to propose to her. You told me that Ellen took her chance with you, and you turned her down. At least she knows now, and as much as Michael was- well still can be, a little git, he took his chance with Ellen. You can't use friendship as an excuse anymore. Your friendships survived all that. It will survive this as well."

"She's with Denver," Ben answered, which surprised me. Not about her being with the Slytherin kid, but because he didn't deny his love for her.

"They won't last," I insisted, and I knew I was right. From what Ben had told me. They'd been off and on for years. "I'm serious, Ben. You don't have to tell me. I can see it in your eyes when you're around her. I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did. I don't want you having too many regrets when it comes to her later on."

Ben turned away to stare out into the lake.

"Look, Barry, this is about you and Tasha right now," he finally answered. "Don't worry too much about my love life right now. Let's focus on yours at the moment."

I wanted to argue, but I knew my brother was stubborn. I decided, for now, I would drop the subject, but I wasn't letting it go. I wanted him to have his happiness, and I knew he loved his best friend. I of all people knew how that felt, and it was why I wasn't going to let him waste his time on any other girls when she was right in front of him.

* * *

For the rest of the summer, I made plans on how I was going to ask Tasha. There were so many times when I was going to ask Nick what I should do, but before I could, an idea came to me instead. I didn't know why I hadn't thought of it sooner. I was going to ask her to meet me at Kings Cross, and once the train and the parents were gone, I was going to ask her to marry me. I was going to ask her ten years after we met at almost the same place we met to spend her life with me.

It felt like the rest of the summer dragged on after I made my plans. Ben was planning to have a pool party, and then at the last minute, Brianne decided to invite her friends as well. I came so close to changing my mind and asking Tasha then in front of everyone. However, Ben changed my mind again. He wanted to have it as a surprise sixteenth birthday party for Ashley. I understood what he was doing, so I decided Kings Cross was the best idea anyway. It had more meaning.

Mum and dad wanted it to be a party to celebrate the fact that Ben had been made prefect, but he wanted none of that. He wanted all the focus to be on Ashley. I had to say; she'd really grown into her looks. In her first year, she had been very awkward looking, and though she wasn't beautiful now, she could be cute.

"Look at Ben staring at her in that bikini," Nick said to me. "He's undressing her with his eyes."

"All these boys are with all the girls," I said in amusement.

And it was true. I knew how much of a shock it could be to see girls in bathing suits after seeing them always in Hogwarts robes. The boys seemed to almost be in shock, especially once Brianne's friends came out parading in their own. They were older girls. I felt terrible for them as they were only fifteen-year-old boys. I remembered the awkwardness of that age.

"I've got to say, those girls have grown up beautiful," Nick said. "I remember those twin girls when we were in our seventh year. I feel like such a creeper by admitting that."

"I love Tasha, but I've noticed," I said. "As long you don't go after said underage girls, then it's fine. You're going to notice how hot they are, even if it feels wrong."

"I'm just going to go talk to Hilda," Nick told me with a wink. "She's almost eighteen. I need to talk to you first, though."

"About what?" I asked as he suddenly looked very serious.

"Remember I told you that work was going to send me travelling? Well, it's going to be sooner than we thought. It's in September. I leave September first, actually. I don't mean for the short notice, and I can still send rent money," Nick told me. "I only just found out yesterday, and you and Tasha were here."

"Brianne is travelling too," I said though I was a bit put out by his news. I wasn't upset but he'd always been there with me since I was eleven. Even during the summers, we'd see each other almost every day.

"I know she told me. We might end up meeting up a few times," Nick told me.

And though at the time, it seemed very innocent. I had no idea what was in store for me in the future.

"Then look out for her. It's her first time on her own," I said.

"Don't worry, I will," Nick told me before turning to walk to where Hilda was sitting with her legs in the pool.

I was so glad that she'd gotten over me long ago. At least I was sure she was. She hadn't flirted with me in years. Not since I'd gotten together with Tasha. Apparently, she'd tried to get with Ben, but Brianne had nipped that in the bud. It would have been interesting to see that. She'd always been protective of me, but she was a lot more protective of Ben.

I began moving around the party socializing while my parents began preparing a cake for Ashley. Eventually, I found myself in the kitchen, helping them out. I knew Ashley was still with that Denver kid, but I wished she weren't. I would have told Ben to ask her out that day if she wasn't.

"I think we're ready," Ben said as he walked into the kitchen. "I think people are probably ready to eat."

"Well, go out there and let everyone know," I told Ben as I pulled out my wand. "I'll bring out the cake."

I wanted to see her reaction. It wasn't just because she was my brother's future girlfriend, but because I liked her as well. She'd always been a sweet, polite girl, and I thought she was perfect for Ben. My parents loved her, too, and I knew they were hoping he'd come to his senses soon.

I levitated the cake as Ben left the kitchen. As I followed my brother out, he called for everyone's attention and then he told them all that it would be Ashley's sixteenth birthday soon. As everyone began to sing to her, I watched as her eyes widened while she stared at Ben. And then the same look Tasha had been giving me since third year, appeared on Ashley's face as she stared at my little brother. She loved him as well, and I was sure everyone there could see it. I couldn't stop the smirk from appearing on my face.

Later on, when Ben and I were alone in the kitchen, grabbing some butterbeer, I turned to him.

"She loves you," I said firmly. "Do something about it."

And then I left the kitchen with my drinks before he could protest.

* * *

September first was a beautiful sunny and warm day. It still felt like it could be the beginning of August instead of the beginning of September. I'd told Tasha I needed her to meet me there as it was imperative. I had to hide so my parents couldn't see me. All of the parents were standing near the train. I arrived ten minutes before.

The platform was usually cloudy with mist, so it wasn't hard to hide from all the parents. I'd told Tasha to meet me against the wall behind everyone. I knew she was confused as to why since it was a Sunday. I was leaning against the stone wall of the platform when she finally arrived, looking around confused. I'd told her to come close to eleven. I checked my watch as soon as I saw her. It was two minutes to eleven.

"What's going on?" She asked once she was in front of me.

"Just a second," I said as I continued to stare at my watch.

"Okay, but I don't understand what was so important," she said. "You said it was imperative I be here by eleven. Did Ben ask Ashley out? Where are your parents?"

"Any second," I said as I watched as the seconds neared eleven.

The train was about to go, and just as it switched to eleven, it began to move. As soon as it did, I knelt on one knee and stared up at Tasha as I pulled out the ring.

"Tasha Fadden, ten years ago, at this minute we met for the first time. You were the very best person in my life, and I'm so thrilled that you were in my life for the past ten years. Would you do me the honour of spending the rest of your life with me?"

Tasha's mouth dropped open and then she began to weep.

"Yes, I will," she finally said.

I jumped up and finally slid the ring onto her finger. We both stared at it for a few moments before we moved to kiss. Ten years ago, at that minute, we'd met, and we were now engaged.

"Who would have thought," she whispered once be broke apart. "Oh, Barry. This is the most romantic engagement."

We kissed again. I could finally call her my fiancee, which is what I wanted to do for so many years now.

"I want to keep it secret," I said once we'd finished kissing. "Just until Christmas. I want all of the family together when I tell them. Ben is the only one who knows."

"I'm okay with that," she whispered. "I just want to enjoy this moment."

We grinned at each other. I knew it would be ruined if my parents saw us, but they must have dropped Ben off and left. The parents were all slowly disappearing, and the platform was clearing up. Soon, it was just the two of us standing there.

"I know you still get sad about your parents sometimes," I continued. "But my family is yours now, or at least it will when we set a date."

"Maybe next summer," she responded. "It gives us time to plan, and for everyone else to as well. I know you'll want Ben and Brianne there and she's travelling, and he's at school. Likely you want Nick to be the best man, so he'll need to return as well."

"Ben is the best man. Nick will be at the wedding, but I want my little brother up there with me," I said.

She grinned at me.

"I should have expected as much," she said. "Gosh, we've got so much planning to do. And what about Nick?"

"What about him?" I asked.

"Will he still live with us?"

I took her hand and began leading her away from the wall. I wasn't sure how long the barrier remained open. I figured we'd probably apparate back to the flat once we were ready to go.

"Of course," I answered. "He'll stay with us for as long as he wants. I don't think us being engaged or married will change that. Once we start having kids that might change, or once we get the trust fund. I want to buy a house for us eventually."

"_We_ will buy a house eventually," Tasha corrected. "Don't forget, I have my own money, _too_, Barry. We're not just relying on that trust fund. I want to contribute, as well."

"Fair enough," I said, leaning in to kiss her. "For now, though, Nick can stay for as long as he needs to."

Tasha nodded and then grinned up at me.

"Why don't we go home and celebrate? Nick will be gone now, and we should Christian our bed as an engaged couple," she said.

"You just read my mind," I responded, kissing her again.

I couldn't believe that the woman in front of me was finally my fiancee. I was engaged! We were engaged. I really was starting my life.

* * *

Tasha and I began making plans right away, though some of it was hard since we weren't telling anyone until Christmas. She had ideas for who she wanted to be her bridesmaids and maid of honour. We also began making a list of people whom we wanted to invite to our wedding as well.

I expected it to be a small list, but it turned out to be quite lengthy, especially after writing down all of my family members.

"Well, we do have to invite Luna," Tasha told me one evening while we sat in the kitchen, going over who we wanted there. "And I know we're keeping it secret Barry, but I think we should tell her soon. We don't know the date yet, but it gives her time to respond."

"I think it's okay to tell some people," I told her. "It's mainly my family I don't want to know yet, but even if we picked the date as tomorrow, they'd all show up. I think for people who may be hard to reach, we can tell. I definitely want Chester and Ralph there, and they are in the States. What about your parents?"

Tasha let out a heavy sigh.

"I don't know," she said. "They still don't like to talk to me. I doubt they care that I am getting married. I suppose I should tell them, but I'm just scared of more rejection from them."

"We'll go together if you decide to tell them," I told her. "I'll be there for you."

Tasha gave me a small smile and then reached out to take my hand.

"Thank you, Barry, but this is something I have to do by myself. If they don't decide to come, that is it. I won't bother them again. It will be their move," Tasha told me.

"Well, make sure you let me know right away. We really need to get those message parchments that the Weasley's are selling," I added. "It will make things easier for us to contact each other."

Message parchments seemed to be an advanced protean charm. I wasn't sure how they worked, but each parchment came with a number at the top. All a person needed was your number to contact you. They would write your number at the top and then the message. George Weasley invented them, and Ron helped. I had a feeling that they'd gotten the idea from the DA coins we'd used, only they decided to use parchment instead. They were sold out the last time I'd gone.

"Well, I'm one step ahead of you there," Tasha told me with a grin. "I ordered some for us. Once they have more made, they'll send them to us. They remind me of instant messaging on the internet. That's a muggle thing."

"I know what it is," I responded kindly. "Ashley has shown us when we've gone to her place."

I'd been to her place various times (mainly to take her to and from home), and often I was invited to stay. Her family seemed to love me.

"Speaking of Ashley, has Ben done anything about her yet?" Tasha asked.

"I don't know," I answered. "He hasn't written yet, but I know he plans to-"

Just as I was saying that an owl flew into the kitchen. I wondered who it was as I didn't recognize the owl. Maybe it was Nick or Brianne writing to tell us about their travels. I quickly took the letter from it and opened it. I laughed as soon as I saw who it was from.

"What's so funny?" Tasha asked.

"It's from Ben," I answered, still chuckling. "What a coincidence."

"Ooh, so what does it say?" She asked excitedly.

I began reading through it to see. By the time I was finished, I was beaming. Ben and Ashley had finally gotten together a few days ago. He likely tried to write to me as soon as he could to let me know. At the bottom, he told me to get a message parchment, and he had both his and Ashley's numbers written at the bottom.

"Well?" Tasha asked.

I handed the letter to her in response. She read through it, and then she began to giggle.

"That is such an odd coincidence, but good for them. At least it didn't take them as long as it did us," she said. "Christmas will be so exciting this year. We'll have our news to announce, and we'll see them as a couple as well."

"I need to make sure I talk to Madam Runtkin to make sure I do have it off," I answered.

"You haven't had to work it the last two years," Tasha said. "I thought you had your own projects now. I doubt they'll assign you to that."

"But remember, the Ministry is really busy that time of year," I reminded her. "Sometimes they need extra people, and apparently there have been suspicious people meeting up in Diagon Alley, and sometimes Hogsmeade."

"Surely that won't be your department," Tasha said. "It will be the Aurors, and maybe Nick's department. Don't stress unless you need to, Barry. So, are we inviting Ashley, or is she going to be Ben's guest?"

"She'll be his guest, but we'll invite Ellen and Michael as well. I've grown fond of Michael, and I know Ben will want Ellen there," I said. "They don't need plus ones, though. I think most of our guests will, of course, but those two don't need to bring dates or anything. I want Hermione there too. We got rather close while we worked together as Heads."

"Harry Potter too?" Tasha asked.

"I don't know; we don't know him, do we?" I responded. "I think just Hermione, and she will likely invite Ron. We'll invite Ginny who will probably invite Harry," and then I laughed. "Why? You want famous people at our wedding?"

"No, of course not," Tasha responded, turning red. "I just know usually with Hermione; Harry Potter is probably around too."

"I dunno, you're turning red," I teased, which caused Tasha to throw her quill at me.

"Why am I marrying you again?" She asked.

"Because you love me," I said, and I leaned over to kiss her.

"I thought there had to be a reason," she answered. "Okay, so now, the teachers. I want McGonagall and Flitwick at least, and obviously Hagrid."

"As long as it's not Slughorn, I don't care," I said.

Tasha made a face but agreed. It wasn't that I disliked him, but I felt that he would see my wedding as an opportunity to collect famous people. He was an opportunist like that. I knew Tasha agreed, and she wrote in big letters: Teachers? NOT SLUGHORN!


	5. Chapter 5

Our wedding list went through many changes as time went on. Either we added people or removed people. As soon as I could, I went to my Head to make sure I wouldn't have to work Christmas. I decided I would tell her the truth. Tasha and I had agreed that we'd tell people if it was essential. I felt a wedding announcement was definitely up there.

Thankfully, she didn't think we'd be all that busy that Christmas, but she made sure to mark my name off the list.

"You work hard young Barry, and of course I understand," she told me. "Be sure to let me know when you do finalize a wedding date, though. We'll give you the time off for it."

Tasha and I were still trying to figure that out. Then one day in mid-December, I went home to find Tasha sobbing on the couch. I wondered what was wrong. I knew she wasn't happy at work. I'd been telling her that she should either look into another department or to quit, but she wouldn't. She worked in the Department of Magical Equipment Control. She was bored there, and she hated her Department head. She was scared to quit with the wedding coming up and all, but I now made enough money to support us both until she found another job.

"Tasha?" I asked as I sat beside her.

Without responding to me, she pointed to a stick on the table. I wasn't exactly sure of what it was. I picked it up to examine it before looking at her with confusion.

"It's positive," she said.

"What is positive?" I asked.

"It's a pregnancy test Barry," she said. "It's positive. It's still quite early, but I missed my period, and I just had a feeling. I've never been late or anything. I'd say I'm about five weeks, maybe."

I just stared at her. Had she said what I thought she said? She was pregnant. I felt in shock as I stared, not really taking it in. When I didn't respond, she began to weep even harder.

"I am so sorry, Barry!" She wept. "I know you're so angry with me."

"What? No," I said quickly, and I pulled her into my arms. I felt like a git because I should have said something right away. "No, Tasha, no, I am not angry at all. I'm just shocked. You have nothing to be sorry about. It took two of us to make a baby. Are you sure it's right, though?"

"We'll need to make an appointment, but it's not often that you get a false positive," she said. "But what are we going to do about money? With the wedding-"

"Tasha, you can't be stressing yourself out," I said. "I don't know much about pregnancy, but I do know that stress isn't good for you. I'm not angry with you, and things will be fine. Look, we're allowed to access our trust funds for emergencies. A wedding and a baby would fall under that category. We will be fine."

"But Barry, I don't want our baby born out of wedlock, and I don't want to show on my wedding day," she said. "What are we going to do?"

"We'll move up the wedding date," I told her. "We're telling everyone at Christmas, and we'll send out the invitations sooner. If everyone can't show up, that's fine. The important people will be there. Nick and Brianne will be back at any time, and I think Luna will be around for the winter, at least. We just need to decide on the date."

Tasha finally smiled through her tears, and she pulled away from me.

"Maybe it's cliche, but I was thinking Valentine's Day," she said.

"Then Valentine's Day it will be," I told her. "I'll tell my Head, and you will tell yours. We'll let Luna and my cousins know for now. After Christmas, we'll tell everyone else. Now, have you decided if you're going to tell your parents?"

She nodded.

"They need to know that they have a grandchild on the way," she told me. "I'm going to their place when the holidays start. Oddly enough, it was them I thought of first when I figured it out. I wrote to them even before I took the test. I'll make an appointment at St Mungo's tomorrow. We likely won't have an appointment for a while. Five weeks is still so early. The baby will be about the size of a sesame seed."

"Blimey, that's tiny," I said, not knowing what else to say.

"Just wait," she said. "They grow fast, and it's why I want to move up the wedding. By February, I won't show much. I'll almost be three months, but the baby will still be tiny."

"I remember when mum was pregnant with Ben, and she didn't show right away," I said. "Are you sure you don't want me to go with you when you tell your parents? I want to be there for you."

"I need to do it on my own," she told me. "But you're already here for me. You always have been. You're not even angry that-"

"Tasha, I would never be angry with you for being pregnant," I told her. "Never. It takes two to make a baby. And maybe we're ready anyway. We don't have much of a choice now anyway, but I think we are ready, don't you?"

"I suppose so, but it hasn't hit me yet," Tasha said. "I know the test says positive, but the fact that we'll be parents in the summer really hasn't hit me."

"It's due in the summer, then?" I asked, trying to do the math in my head.

"Likely late July or mid-August," she said. "But a Healer will know better. I'm just worried because I wanted to start searching for a new career, but now I can't."

"I don't think you should return after your maternity leave," I told her. "I say you go on the leave and take a year off, but then put in your notice. I hope you don't think I'm being a git by saying this, but maybe you could even be a stay-at-home mum for the first few years."

"Why would I think you're a git for saying that?" She asked. "I quite like that idea."

"I just don't want you to think that I want you pregnant and in the kitchen," I responded. "I want you to do whatever makes you happy. I know sometimes some women get offended and-"

Tasha laughed and wiped at her face. "I don't think you're a git. I've known you for over ten years, Barry. I know you don't think like that. I know you're just trying to be supportive and to be honest, I really want to do that. I want to show our baby all the love and affection I never got once I was eleven."

I felt sad for her when she said that, and I sincerely hoped her parents would do the right thing and come to our wedding. I knew Tasha wanted them there so much, and though she said that she was okay if they said no, but I didn't think she would be. I believed this rejection would take a toll on her more than the others had, especially now that she was pregnant.

I felt as I was dreaming. She was pregnant. I, Barry Hoofer, would be a father next summer. I was going to be responsible for another life. I was good with kids, I had to be growing up with three younger siblings, and also being Prefect and Head Boy, but I'd been their big brother, or I'd been in a leadership role. This was my own flesh and blood that I would have to raise. What if I wasn't any good at it? How many times had I lost my temper on Brenda, or even Brianne and Ben? I'd even ignored Ben when I'd felt his problems had been petty.

I couldn't wait until Christmas so that I could talk to dad. I was absolutely terrified.

A couple of days later, something happened to take both our minds off the upcoming wedding, and Tasha's pregnancy. We were sitting together on the couch, and listening to a Quidditch game on the wireless, when Brianne and Nick entered the flat. I jumped up to welcome them home before I noticed that they were holding hands.

"What is going on?" I demanded as I looked from Brianne to Nick. "Why are you holding hands?"

I said this more to Nick than to Brianne. Why the hell was he holding hands with my little sister? And before they could even say anything, I knew. They were together. That much was obvious, and I slowly grew angry. Not only had he gone for Brenda, but now he was with my baby sister? Just what the hell was he playing at?

"Now, don't get angry, Barry," Brianne began in a small voice. "But we got together while we were travelling."

"What the hell, Nick?" I asked as I turned to my best friend. "First Brenda, and now Brianne? Did Brenda even enter your minds when you decided on this," and I glared at Nick. "Is this what you want? To go through the Hoofer girls?"

"Barry," Tasha said as she put a hand on my arm, but I moved away.

I stalked over to Nick, who stood his ground.

"That's not it at all, mate," he said.

"Really? Then tell me what it is then!" I snarled. "What the hell are you doing with my sister?"

"Please, Barry," Brianne said. "Don't get angry with him. He said no at first, but I kept pursuing him. It was me who went after him. He knew how you would feel, and he didn't want to hurt Brenda. Neither did I, but I've been in love with him since I was a kid! Plenty of time has passed, and we've always been close."

"But that's just it!" I yelled. "You've always been close. Which means that you've had your eye on her for a while," I added to Nick. "All those years at Hogwarts, you two were hanging out, and that was long before you got with Brenda! Was she just someone to pass the time with until Brianne was old enough?"

"Mate, no!" Nick said. "Absolutely not."

"You were always protective of her," I growled. "I remember you getting angry with blokes for hitting on her, and it was because you fancied her!"

"No," Nick repeated. "I did not fancy Brianne until the summer before her seventh year, but I kept it to myself! When she was younger, I saw her as my younger sister, just as I see Ben as my little brother. I've grown up with your family. You know the circumstances when it came to Brenda."

He backed away from me and then he began to pace. Brianne looked close to tears, but she kept quiet. Tasha got up and put an arm around me. This time I let her.

"Barry, you know Nick," she told me.

"I admit I'm a git," Nick told me.

"You can say that again!" I snarled.

"I know. I fell for both of your sisters, but it's not how you think! I never thought I would see Brianne this way. It wasn't until she stayed with us for the summer that I did! It came out of nowhere, mate, and I tried to deny it as much as I could!"

"And yet you two travelled together!" I shouted. "You told me the date changed! Is that really true, or did you leave September first because Brianne did?"

"Ask my Head if you have to. Or I'll get some truth serum if I have to. My trip was changed to the first of September. My department doesn't work that way, Barry. I can't just decide when we're supposed to go on trips. I may not be a rookie anymore, but I still can't make those decisions. That's all up to my Head," Nick answered, remaining calm.

"It was me who changed my plans!" Brianne told me. "I knew we'd probably bump into each other anyway since we were going to the same places, so I decided on September first! It was me the entire time because I knew how he felt about me. We love each other, Barry."

"And did you think of Brenda at all?" I snapped. "You know, your sister, who was heartbroken when they ended it?"

"Yes, of course," she responded. "And you know what? I decided I can't let her stand in the way of my happiness. I know that makes me sound selfish, but she has always been selfish, Barry! I didn't always tell you everything when it came to her! Ever since I was three-years-old, she has made my life miserable. It wasn't just Brenda who lost a room when Ben moved into my room; I did too. I never complained, though, because I understood why mum and dad made that decision, and I most certainly never resented Ben for it! But Brenda seemed to always take it out on either me or Ben! There were so many times when I put her happiness before my own because of all the fits she threw! You don't know what it was like when you went to Hogwarts in your first year, and you don't know what it was like when you left! She made my fifth year so hard for me! Neither you nor Nick were there to stop her, so it was open season for me. And yet, I kept doing what I could to put her first, but I _can't_ anymore!"

And then she began to weep. Tasha let go of me to go over and hug her. I wished she'd have told me, but I wasn't so sure if I could have been as harsh with Brenda as I had been in the past. She'd been so sad back then. However, while she didn't always listen to me (or even Nick), she would stop if we said something enough times. She never left Brianne and Ben alone when they asked her to. It was one of the reasons I was relieved that Ben had been sorted into Hufflepuff. Chances are, she would have been harder on him than Brianne. I knew from talking to Sam that she'd been hard on him as well.

"I've always been the one who has looked out for everyone else, and I've always taken care of everyone else! Why can't I just do what makes me happy for once? Nick makes me happy! I don't want to end it with him when I know she would never do the same! If she were in my shoes right now, she wouldn't end it! She would put herself first because Brenda Hoofer always has to come first before everyone else, and_ you_ know that Barry!"

I hated to see my little sister cry, but she was sobbing even harder now. What had they expected, though? I understood, I honestly did, but for them to walk hand in hand all casual after what had happened with Brenda got to me. Nick had dated both my little sisters! And though deep down, I knew he wasn't trying to mark off some imaginary scoreboard, at the moment, it was hard to accept.

"Barry, I truly love him," Brianne told me. "And I am so sorry our sister has to get hurt, and I am sorry it's your best friend, but you can't always help who you fall in love with. _You_ of all people know that."

"I know," I finally said.

"We didn't plan this mate," Nick said. "I know it looks bad, and I understand your anger, but I would not go for Brianne if I didn't love her. I planned to do as you told me and to look out for her, but sometimes things don't always go as planned. You must believe me; I never felt anything for her when we were kids. I never imagined… it just happened, mate, and I hate that Brenda has to get hurt more. I'm sorry."

"I understand," I finally said but then glared at him. "But that doesn't mean I'm not still angry with you."

"And I understand your anger, mate," Nick said. "I would feel the same way in your shoes. The last thing I want to do is jeopardize things with you. You're my best mate. You're as much my brother as Noah is, and it's why I didn't go for her at first. I don't want to do anything to ruin our friendship, but I love Brianne."

"It's not going to ruin our friendship," I said in a low voice. "I'm-I'm still so pissed off at you, but it's not going to ruin our friendship." And then I looked away from him. "Unless you break her heart, that is. I'll understand if it doesn't work out between you two, but I don't want to hear about you breaking her heart. You two say it's serious, so you'd better make sure it truly_ is_ for Brenda's sake!"

"We're serious," Brianne told me. "We wouldn't be doing this if we weren't sure, but we are. We're very serious, and we are very sure. We talked about it for a very long time. I know it's going to take some time for you to get used to us, and it's why we came here right away. We came to you first before anyone else."

I nodded and then walked back over to sit on the couch. The past few days had been nothing but shocking for me. First, I learned that I was going to be a father, and now apparently, my best friend and my baby sister were dating.

"Don't expect to be living together with us," I finally said.

Nick let out a nervous laugh.

"We're not ready for that yet, mate," he told me.

"I'm going back home for a bit, but I'm going to be looking for my own flat soon with the girls," Brianne told me. "They still live at home, but we always talked about living together just as the three of you did. We're taking our time with this, and we both know better than even to suggest me moving in here."

"Good," was all I could muster.

"But I will be inviting him to Christmas dinner," Brianne stated. "I'm leaving here soon to talk to Brenda and then mum and dad. She's going to be so angry, but I'm going to try and get her to understand."

For the first time since they dropped the bomb, I started to laugh.

"Brianne, you couldn't even get her to understand when you accidentally ruined her Potions essay," I said. "We've never been able to get her to understand. Do you think you can get her to understand this? She is going to kill you."

"And I think that's why I'll sleep in your old room tonight," Brianne said with a small smile. "In fact, I should get going. I need to get it over with."

She looked as if she wanted to kiss Nick goodbye, but she just patted his arm instead before she turned on the spot and disappeared. I didn't want to be her at that moment. Brenda was going to lose it on her.

"I think I'll make us some tea," Tasha said, and she quickly left to go into the kitchen.

"Mate, you do understand, don't you?" Nick asked as he sat down beside me. "I wouldn't do anything to betray our friendship on purpose."

"I know," I said.

"I meant it when I said you're my brother," he continued. "It's likely the only time I'll admit this to another bloke, but I love and trust you. I was scared about how you'd react the whole time, but I had to follow my heart. I had to just as you did with Tasha, and Ben did with Ashley. He wrote and told me," he quickly added.

Apparently Ben had written to several people about it. It was how I knew he was finally with the girl he wanted to be with truly. He'd never written to Nick about his other girlfriends. He only told Brianne and me, and everyone else later on.

"Nick, it's going to take me some time to get used to this, but I don't hate you. I'm still rather angry, but you're my brother too," I said. "So, I don't hate you. I meant what I said earlier, though. You two had better be serious."

"We are," he told me.

And the way he said it, it scared me because I believed him. I could see it in his eyes. He truly loved Brianne.

* * *

It took a few days for me to get over the shock of Brianne and Nick being together, but I grew to accept it as she kept coming over to visit. Being at home was harder for her as well because, as I suspected, Brenda was not impressed. She'd gone as far as hexing Brianne with several curses (including the boil hex) who had stood there and taken it. When she told us the story later, she explained that she hadn't even drawn her wand because she felt she deserved it.

"Does this mean I need to get the Weasley's shield clothes when I go over for dinner?" Nick had asked with a weak smile.

I didn't want to admit it, but after seeing them together all relaxed, I believed he was actually a good bloke for my little sister, and she was a great girl for him. It was so bizarre because the entire time that Brenda and Nick had been together, I'd felt so annoyed. I'd always been irritated when I saw Brianne and one of her boyfriends together, but this time, once the shock wore off, I thought Brianne and Nick made a good couple.

I was getting used to the two of them sitting together on the loveseat, hand in hand, and talking happily. I still wasn't ready for her to stay the night, and they thankfully understood that. I knew Brianne was staying with us more often just because it was uncomfortable being at home. She would go home late and stay in my old bedroom.

"We'll have a flat this weekend though thankfully," Brianne told me one afternoon while we waited for Nick and Tasha to come home. "I'd like to be at home to see Ben, especially since I want to see him and Ashley together, but I feel like I'm walking on eggshells at home."

"Do mum and dad know about you and Nick?" I asked her.

"Yes, and I thought they might be angry with me, but they're not. They both understand completely, and they're not upset with Nick either. They understand better than you do," Brianne told me. "You know, I thought dad especially would want to kill him."

"Me too," I said with surprise.

I would have thought that dad would be at our flat and hexing a specific part of Nick's body.

"Dad said that he knows we both wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't serious," Brianne told me. "So I guess the last person to break our news too is Ben. I think he'll understand, though. His situation is tricky as well, and by the sounds of it, Ellen still wants him."

"She'll have to get over it," I said. "I haven't seen them together, but we both know that it's it for them. I just wish I'd been smarter about Tasha when I was his age."

"Well, Ben had a big brother looking out for him," Brianne said. "And besides, you had a lot more stresses in your fifth year than he has. The worst he has to deal with is his OWLs and Ellen. You had You-Know-Who, and besides, you were scared of losing her. Both you and Tasha were fools back then, but Ashley and Ben figured it out and went for it."

"I'm not so sure about that," I said. "I think they had a lot of people pushing them together. Perhaps you're the only smart one," I continued. "You knew what you wanted, and you went for it. The rest of us needed people to tell us to go for it."

Brianne let out a sigh and then shifted while looking uncomfortable.

"Er, not really, Barry. I've liked Nick since I was eight-years-old. He was this cute friend of yours, and it just grew over the years. He was always too old, though, so I didn't go for it. Then when I started to get old enough, he got with Brenda, and I thought that was it. I tried so hard because I really did not want to hurt her. In my seventh year, I tried so to meet other boys and move on. I did what you did while Tasha was in hiding, but it didn't work. I saw him again in the summer, and I just couldn't do it anymore. When I heard his trip was moved up, I decided to go as well. And I know it seems so horrible, but I love him. I can't help it. You know that Brenda would do the same, though, if she were in my shoes. She's never cared about anyone except Brenda."

"Brianne, I get it," I told her. "I'm still annoyed, but I know she'd go for an ex of yours if she wanted them enough. She's always put herself before us. It was more Nick that I was angry with, but I'm not even upset with him anymore. At first, I was because it's both my sisters, but I know him too well. He wouldn't be with you unless it was serious. Besides, I know when he is lying, and he is very much in love with you, and that terrifies me."

"Well, it shouldn't," she told me with a grin. "You do want us to work after all."

"But you're my baby sister," I said.

"Your baby sister, who is now eighteen. I'm the same age you were when you got with Tasha," Brianne responded. "I'm older than Ben is."

It was hard to think of her as eighteen, almost nineteen, though. I still thought of her as that little eleven-year-old who was excited to start at Hogwarts soon. Or that little eight-year-old who would follow us around when we came home for the holidays. I remembered the thirteen-year-old who had squealed excitedly when she finally got her first boyfriend. She was no longer that little girl, though. She was an adult, and she could make her own decisions, and she knew what she was doing, and so did Nick.

And I knew how I could show her that there were no hard feelings. I should have talked to Tasha first, but I believed she would be okay with this. We would need to tell Nick too. I knew Brianne would be excited to know that she was going to be an aunt.

"To show you no hard feelings, I am going to tell you a secret," I said. "But you can't tell anyone because we're going to announce it at Christmas dinner. I'll have to tell Nick as well. I will when they come home."

"Ooh," Brianne said excitedly now. "What do you have to tell me!?"

"We just found out that Tasha is pregnant. We still need to go to an appointment, but Tasha thinks that she is due in August."

Just as I suspected, she let out a loud squeal and then she threw her arms around me. I cringed as she continued to scream as it was right in my ear.

"I can't believe I am going to be an aunt!" She said as she pulled away. "And you're going to be a dad! Are you scared? Are you excited? Have you thought of any names yet?"

"It hasn't really hit me to feel scared or excited," I told her with amusement. "But we haven't thought of names yet. We've discussed them a little, but now with Nick home, we haven't. I'll have to tell him now that I told you," I added as I winked at her. "No way can you keep it secret."

"I can keep it secret," she told me. "Am I the first you've told?"

"Yes," I responded. "So don't tell anyone else yet. Once they're here, I'll tell Nick, but I want to surprise everyone else at dinner. Maybe our news will cheer Brenda up because we all know she isn't going to be a joy to be around."

"She'll brood, though," Brianne said. "She doesn't throw fits the way she used to. She hexed me, but I deserved it."

"Well, she has her moments," I said. "She still does, but maybe the news that she'll be an aunt will take the strain off the two of you. Besides, she'll see Ben and Ashley together as well."

Brianne let out a little snort.

"I don't think that will take the heat off us," Brianne said. "She likes Ashley, but she won't be as excited as you and me, or even mum and dad. I think your news is what will cheer her up. I think seeing three couples around might depress her. She's the only Hoofer kid not bringing over a date. Plus, the fact that Ben is bringing someone when he is only sixteen will probably be harder on her."

"I hadn't thought of that," I said. "I really hope she doesn't make a big deal out of things."

Brianne had a point, Brenda wasn't as outspoken as she had been when we were kids, but she had her moments. I knew the old Brenda would bitch the moment she entered the room. I didn't know how she'd be this time around.


	6. Chapter 6

Ben came home shortly after that, and I went over to visit him a few days into the holidays. I couldn't help but wonder if he'd grown even more. He was like me, he usually looked as if he'd been hit by a stretching charm, but I had a feeling he would surpass me in height. I greeted mum and dad quickly before I bounded up the steps. I headed straight to his room. His door was open, so I walked right in. He was sitting at his desk and working on homework, but this didn't surprise me.

"So when am I going to see my new little sister?" I asked, getting straight to the point. I was going to have fun teasing him about her.

"She's coming over for Christmas dinner," Ben responded, which I already knew.

"Well, I am glad you finally took my advice," I told him as I took a seat on the edge of his bed.

"Well, it was Ashley who told me," Ben replied. "She waited for me outside the Common Room, and when I went out to see why, she confessed that she liked me. So I kissed her, and we've been together ever since."

"I didn't think she had it in her," I said with shock as I knew she was quite shy. "I always thought she'd be the type to wait for the bloke to make a move."

"Actually, she's always been the one to make the move," Ben told me. "She told Denver, and she told me. I was planning on saying something, but I didn't want to move too fast when she and Denver broke up. So I was going to give it some time before I made the move. Ellen forced her to tell me, though."

"And by the sounds of it, Ellen is still giving you problems?" I asked, remembering everything he'd written to me since their first date and what Brianne had said.

"She hasn't since our first date," Ben said. "But she still wants me. Tara told me that she overheard Ellen telling Lindsay that she thinks I need to come to my senses and that she thinks she and I are meant to be together. Part of me thinks that Tara was talking about herself, but I wouldn't put it past Ellen either. I'm so sick of these girls and don't tell me that I should feel flattered. At one time, it was nice to have girls interested, but I am with Ashley now. I just want them to leave me alone."

"No, I agree with you, Ben," I told him with understanding. At one time, I would have told him that, but I would have been angry if girls continued to hit on me after I got with Tasha. "It's fine for a girl to be interested, but from you've told me, they are obsessed with you. I'd be pissed too if I were you."

"They get worse when I'm in a relationship," Ben explained. "Even if it doesn't work out with Ashley, I don't want to be with some girl who tried to steal me from my girlfriend. I've even told them that, but girls like Ellen and Tara don't get it. So why didn't you answer me when I wrote? You have a message parchment, so I can tell when you're ignoring me."

"I wasn't ignoring you, little brother," I responded. "I even told you that I'd see you when you got home. There isn't much I can tell you. I think you're already doing the right thing. You're still friends with Ellen, and you're staying with Ashley. If it were the other way around, I'd tell you to dump Ellen and give it some time before you went out with Ashley. I've always known you were meant to be with Ashley, and I always knew that Ellen might cause problems. Ellen will move on."

I just hoped she would hurry up and get it through her head that my brother didn't want her. Why were girls so different in his year than mine? None of them had ever given me a hard time, and I'd never had anyone obsessed with me. Hilda liked me for years, but she had respected some things. I'd always assumed he would have a love triangle with Ashley and Ellen. I'd thought that the moment I realized he was friends with two girls, but I hadn't thought either would have that level of obsession that Ellen had. And the Tara girl was bad news considering that she'd tried to buy love potions. My opinion on those would never change.

"That's what we think too," Ben told me as he began nodding. "I even told Ellen that she would move on, as well. She is, after all, fifteen years old. So what about you? You never told me how it went with your engagement."

"I didn't ask her right away," I said happy for the change of subject. I couldn't wait until I could tell more people our story. I was surprised Ben hadn't asked sooner. "I was waiting for the right moment. I wanted to wait to tell you when I told the family since you already knew I was going to do it."

"So when did you?" He asked. "Obviously, she said yes."

"The day you went back to school," I said with a grin. "We met September first, and that's when I wanted to propose to her. I waited until eleven o'clock as well. We were at Kings Cross station. I told her that I wanted to see you off at school, and as soon as the train left, I proposed."

"You could have come to see me off," Ben said, and I wondered why he felt that was even necessary. I supposed it was good that he still looked up to me. At times I wondered if he did.

"But then mum and dad would have asked questions," I explained. "I had trouble thinking of the right moment to propose to her. It would have been nice if I could have even been on the train, but obviously, that couldn't work. So I did it on the platform. She and I met on the train ride to school."

Ben nodded, but then he gazed into the distance, and I wondered what that was about. He had a glazed look in his eyes. I waved a hand in front of his eyes, but he didn't respond.

"So, I do get a congratulations?" I finally asked, holding back a laugh. "Why aren't you saying anything, Benny? Aren't you happy for your big brother?"

"I am very happy for you," Ben said, finally snappy out of it. "Sorry, I was just distracted. I was thinking about Ashley and-"

"And your own engagement?" I interrupted, feeling even closer to laughter now. I should have known that's what he'd be thinking. After I first got with Tasha, I thought of it often, and I was sure he did too. "I knew you'd already been thinking about that."

"I thought about it even before we got together," Ben admitted.

"So did I," I confessed. "It took forever for me to think of how to do it and where. You have plenty of time to think about it. I hope you're not planning on doing it anytime soon. I truly believe you two are meant to be together, and you'll end up married, but you're in the fifth year."

I hoped he understood that. I honestly did believe that someday I'd be attending his wedding, and perhaps my son or daughter would be part of the wedding, but I wanted them to be out of school first. It was one think about, but another to get engaged at sixteen.

"Of course not," Ben responded quickly. "I'll probably wait until we're done school. So are you telling mum and dad at dinner?"

"I'm telling them even more than that," I told him excitedly. "Tasha is pregnant. She just found out."

After I'd confessed to her that I'd told Brianne, she'd told me I could tell Ben as well. Nick knew about the baby, too, by that point. Unfortunately, he wanted to move out, and we were both still trying to convince him that he didn't have to yet. We'd both tried our best to tell him that our marriage and the new baby didn't change anything, but he wouldn't budge on his decision. It was something I planned to talk to him again about later when I went back home.

This wasn't the moment to worry about it as Ben got up to come over and hug me. As he did so, I was sure that he was taller than me, but it was hard to tell from my perspective on the bed. He was definitely no longer my 'little' brother.

"You're going to make an amazing father," Ben said while he was hugging me. "When are you telling mum and dad?"

He pulled away and grinned down at me.

"Christmas dinner," I answered. "Can you keep the secret for that long?"

"Can I tell Ashley?" He asked which I was okay with, but I wanted to be the one to tell her about the baby.

"You can tell her about our engagement, but I want to be the one to tell her about the baby," I responded.

"Fair enough," Ben said without argument. He just shrugged. "I'll write to her later. What about Michael and-"

"You can tell your friends about the engagement," I interrupted before he went into his long list of friends. "After we announce the baby at Christmas, you can tell them about that too."

"When is Brianne getting back?" Ben asked, and I guessed he didn't know that she was already back. "Does she know? What about Nick?"

"You're the first one to know little brother," I told him.

"Thanks for trusting me with all this," Ben said happily. "I'm still shocked that I am one of the first to know out of everyone, even Nick. He's your best friend."

"He'll know soon enough," I answered. "I'm not too happy with my best friend at the moment anyway."

I was getting better about it, especially since I could see that they were right for each other, but at times I would think back to it and feel annoyance. This was one of those moments. I shouldn't have said anything, though, because sure enough, he asked why. Brianne wanted to be the one to tell him.

"You'll find out soon enough," I explained. "I promised to keep it secret for now, but you'll know when we have our Christmas dinner."

"Why Christmas dinner?" He asked.

"You'll see," I sighed. "Anyway, we were planning on having the wedding in the summer, but now that Tasha is pregnant, we are moving it up. The wedding will be in February. Tasha wants it to be on Valentine's Day. It's on a Friday this year, so you'll be coming home from school. We want your friends to be there too. We'll be giving out invitations to them soon enough."

"Cutting it close, aren't you?" Ben asked, frowning. "Don't you need to give people more time? It's less than two months, Barry."

He wasn't the first one to comment on the close date, and I was sure he wouldn't be the last. I wondered how mum and dad would feel about the last-minute announcement and plans. They were likely going to have to take it all on as Tasha's parents really had no interest, and they still hadn't told her if they were planning to come. They'd told her maybe. It was still ignorant, but I thought it was progress over a flat out no.

"Well, the pregnancy changed things," I explained to him. "Everyone we'll want to be there will be there. Tasha already has her bridesmaids, and her maid of honour picked out, and I already have the groomsmen. They already all said yes, well except Nick, but I know he will say yes. It's just picking a location now and telling everyone the date. You know mum will be on that the moment we tell her."

"That's for sure," Ben said. "She's been planning your wedding since you brought Tasha home for the Christmas holidays in your first year."

"Just as she has been planning yours," I told him, and I winked. "So tell me more about what's going on with you, little brother."

"And you too," Ben said, "we have a lot of catching up to do."

"Well, let's go to the Leaky Cauldron. I'll get you some drinks, and we'll have a nice evening."

"Sounds good to me," He said.

I stood up, and as I did so, I realized he was at least an inch taller than me. How did the kid keep growing? I'd stopped growing at five-eleven, and he was at least six feet tall. Would he keep growing or was he done growing now? I didn't want to feel jealous, but I couldn't help but feel some. My younger brother was not only taller, but he was a better-looking version of me.

"You need to stop growing," I told him. "You're making me look bad."

"I'm only a couple of inches shorter than Michael now. He looks like a string bean, though," Ben added.

I refrained from telling him that he, too, looked like a string bean. Likely not as much as Michael who had always been too thin, but Ben had that tall, lanky look to him as well. Perhaps I would advise him to start lifting soon. I'd started doing the same in my free time, but I'd lost that string bean look years ago anyway. I didn't want to make him feel self-conscious, though, so I would bring it up in another way. Instead, I just took hold of his arm so we could apparate to the Leaky Cauldron. I couldn't wait until he could do this himself.

It was hard getting through the days leading up to Christmas. I didn't even do much for my twenty-second birthday, but birthdays didn't mean as much to me anymore. I just wanted my family to know the news now. I wanted to start planning with them, and I wanted to finally see my little brother with the love of his life.

Tasha was stopping by her parents to talk with them again, and though I wanted to go with her, she said no. Nick stopped by his parents as well. They'd had their Christmas the day before, but he wanted to visit with Noah for the day as well. So Brianne and I went over to the house early to visit with the family.

Mum and dad were just setting up the table when we entered the dining-room. They were talking in low voices about place settings and Christmas crackers. We hadn't used them in years, so I was surprised they'd gotten them.

"Oh, you two are here early," mum said as she looked up. "Good, you can help us set everything out. Brenda is upstairs, and she won't come out. Ben and Ashley are visiting with each other… but where are Nick and Tasha?"

"They'll be here later," Brianne said. "But we should go see Ashley and Ben then!" She said, turning excitedly to me.

"Let them visit a little longer," mum told me. "They haven't seen each other for a few days, and Ben has been walking around all lovesick. Help us with this, and then you can go up and see them."

"Probably shagging," I whispered to Brianne, and she giggled.

That was one thing about my parents that a lot of people didn't understand. They were extremely trusting. Most parents weren't okay with leaving two teenagers of the opposite sex alone in a bedroom, but they'd never batted an eye. Tasha had spent holidays in my room, but after we'd gotten together, I'd thought they'd put a stop to that. However, they'd still let her sleep in my room. Not that she came over much after that since I'd stay at school for Easter, and then I'd moved out shortly after.

However, they were very trusting. Maybe they knew that we weren't going to do anything under their roof. Brianne had brought home a boyfriend back in her fifth year, and I'd thought for sure that my parents would flip out about him being alone in her room. However, they'd let her take him upstairs as long as they left the door open. He had to sleep in my old room, but they still hadn't gotten upset over her being alone with him.

Nick had been completely shocked by all this, and even now, I was shocked. Mum and dad continued to talk as if their underage son wasn't upstairs, likely snogging his girlfriend. Chances are they'd shagged as well. He'd confessed to me at the Leaky that he wasn't a virgin, which bothered me a lot.

I'd been hoping he'd wait until he was with her, or until was seventeen. He'd actually shagged a few girls to get it over and done with the year before. He hadn't even been in a relationship when he'd done it. According to him, it was because Michael and his ex had already shagged, and so had Ellen. I didn't get why these kids were going so young, but Ben apparently felt that he needed to, as well. So I knew chances are that whatever they were doing up there, it wasn't safe.

I felt it was my fault, as well. I'd lied to him years ago about when I'd lost mine so I could look like a big shot. He thought I'd been fifteen when, in reality, I'd been seventeen. I should have looked out for him better. Chester and Ralph had both advised me to wait, but I'd never had the sex talk with Ben. I figured at my wedding; I would talk to Sam. I needed to look out for at least one Hoofer boy. At least both my sisters had been smart about it, though now I didn't want to know anything about what Brianne was doing.

"They're not shagging," dad said, and I looked up in surprise that he'd heard me. "Don't joke about things like that. They're too young, and they both know it."

Brianne and I exchanged looks. How could dad be that naive? He often told us that he remembered being sixteen, but I didn't think he indeed did. Brianne smirked and then looked away.

"Poor choice of words, I'm not that dumb." dad said with a sigh, not missing our exchange. "Look, I highly doubt they're doing anything up there that they shouldn't. I like to think all of my children are smarter than that, but I do know you're not always honest with me. I just don't think Ben or any of you would do anything when we can walk in at any time. I'd rather not hear you joke about it."

"Alright, dad," I said with amusement. "So, what do you want help with then?"

Mum and dad began telling us a list of things they needed from the kitchen. Brianne and I looked at each other, smirking again before we left the dining room.

"Makes sense why they always let us go upstairs with our boyfriends or girlfriends," Brianne said to me with amusement as she shook her head. "I've always wondered that because my friend's parents always got so annoyed. Hilda had to stay in the living-room with hers, and Tasha shared a room with you!"

"Well, so has Ashley with Ben," I responded. "And I saw him share a bed with her before now. He had the girls over for a sleepover once, and I forget why Michael wasn't there, but I peeked in, and Ashley was in the same bed as Ben. Mind you; both were on opposite ends of the bed, but still. Do you think most parents would approve of that? I won't be letting that stuff happen, especially if I have a daughter."

"But mum and dad are also right," Brianne said. "We all knew that they could walk in at any time. When I had Brad up there with me, I felt so tense the entire time. And actually, I was more worried about you walking in then mum and dad, but you respected our privacy."

"Nick and I had a good talk about that in my fifth year. I never bothered you with your boyfriends. It was Brenda who had to deal with all that," I said.

"I know, and it annoyed her," Brianne said with amusement.

Mum and dad made us stay downstairs for a while, but finally, we were allowed to go up and see them. When we reached the hallway, it was to see that he had his door open, so I knew that they hadn't done anything they weren't supposed to. I could hear their voices coming down the hall. We hurried to his door, and without knocking, I went in and said:

"Good, it's safe. We weren't sure if we were going to walk into something that we shouldn't."

"Oh, shut up," Ben responded. Ashley was sitting on his lap and grinning over at us.

"I've been dying to see the two of you together!" Brianne said excitedly. "I've known you two would get together since your first year, and here you are."

"I told you many times little bro that you would end up with Ashley or Ellen," I said as I flopped into one of his chairs. I'd said this to him many times, but I wouldn't be a big brother if I didn't embarrass him in front of his girlfriend. "I think it might be time for me to remind you of that letter I wrote to you in your first year."

I'd written a letter to him explaining that dating in the first year wasn't serious.

"Mum and dad are thrilled," Brianne continued. "They love Ellen, but they'd rather it be you, Ashley."

That was an understatement. I remembered hearing mum say that she hoped that Ben wouldn't date her. We all suspected that she might just want Ben for his money. One summer, I'd even heard her going on about what she'd do to change our house if she had his trust fund. Ever since, I'd distrusted her and I would have said something if Ben had dated her. I didn't dislike her, but I had a bad feeling about her.

"I know," Ashley said.

"Did you bring Tasha here?" Ben asked. "Maybe your news will take the pressure off of us."

"What news is that?" Ashley asked. "Your engagement?"

I knew I should have told Ben to tell her that I hadn't told Brianne yet. I saw her looked over at me sharply, but she didn't say anything. I could see what she was annoyed, though. I decided to ignore this for the time being, but I knew I'd get the third degree later.

"More than that little sis," I told Ashley. "Tasha is pregnant."

Brianne smiled, but she didn't say anything. She still looked unhappy, but Ashley was excited for us. She got up quickly and came over to hug me, all the while congratulating me. I grinned down at her. While she was still no beauty, I thought she'd gotten cute over the years. I wondered what it was with us Hoofer boys when it came to the dark-haired girls. I knew most would have chosen Ellen, but neither Ben nor I would.

"Thanks," I said. "My mum is going to go nuts. I think she's been planning my wedding to Tasha since my first year."

"That's why I am hoping they announce it tonight at dinner," Ben said as Ashley walked over to sit beside him. "Mum is already excited about us, but they're not even going to notice us after they find out about Barry and Tasha."

"Or Nick and me," Brianne said.

I felt that she was saying that more to tell Ben and Ashley the news since mum and dad already knew about them. Either that, or she meant Brenda would forget about it once we announced our news.

"You and Nick?" Ben and Ashley asked together.

"But, I thought Brenda and Nick were together?" Ashley said

"No, they broke up a long time ago," Ben told Ashley before turning to Brianne. "But now you're with Nick?"

"He's been travelling with her," I said dryly, but I tried to push those annoyed feelings away. I'd told them that I would move past it after all, so I just shrugged and tried to be casual about it as I continued. "Why do you think Brenda isn't joining our little reunion at the moment? She's very angry with Brianne. Nick and Tasha aren't here yet, but they will be joining us for dinner."

I was mainly assuming this as I hadn't seen Brenda for a long time. Anytime I went to visit my parents, she was hiding up in her room. I knew she would be there for dinner, but I was sure she was dreading it.

"I know it might sound awful," Brianne was telling Ashley and Ben. Ben had an irritated expression on his face, so I knew he wasn't too impressed about it either. "And Nick and I did try hard to deny our feelings for each other. I tried dating other blokes to forget him, but I've loved him for a long time."

"We understand," Ben finally told her. "Ellen wanted me, and so we were worried about getting together for her sake," and he glanced over at Ashley before continuing, "but in the end, we decided we had to do what we wanted."

"I knew that would happen!" I said, but I mainly said it to ease the tension.

"Would you a reward?" Ben asked.

"No, but I do remember a twelve-year-old boy who insisted on how wrong I was. Do you know how much I wish I had a time-turner so I could tell you that you're wrong?" I said, forcing a laugh.

"I wouldn't have believed you," Ben said. "I was quite stubborn. Either way, I think the two of you might be enough of a distraction for us."

"Where are Tasha and Nick?" Ashley asked.

"They'll be over later," I said. "So for now, while we wait for dinner, we get to harass the two of you!"

Which we did, we spent the next few hours catching up on the Hogwarts and gossip, and though I loved my life (how could I not?), I felt a little jealous as they told us about the going on's at Hogwarts. Sometimes I missed sitting in the Common Room and spending time with my friends. I missed the late nights, and by the sounds of it, they had more fun than we had. The Hufflepuff's certainly knew how to party.

Nick and Tasha joined us, and both started bugging Ashley and Ben as well. And somehow I knew (though some would tell me that I was being overconfident) that everyone in the room was going to be my family someday. Ashley and Ben would be married with children, and so would Nick. All of us would be raising our kids together, and they would grow up as cousins. I didn't need Divination or Trelawney, or even Firenze to tell me that. I just had a good feeling that the six of us would be raising our children together, and I hoped our kids would be close.

* * *

Mum and dad finally called us all down to dinner. They'd gone all out. Brianne and I had taken things into the dining room for them, but they'd made the room look really fancy. Even when we had the extended family over, we didn't have fancy dinners like this. It was as if mum and dad knew that this was a significant night, as well. Were they doing it for Ashley and Ben or because most of us brought a date to dinner?

Brenda looked skinnier than the last time I'd seen her, and I felt worried. She'd always been thin. She didn't need to lose weight at all. She just stared down at her plate as everyone began taking their seats. Nick looked really nervous as he took the seat beside Brianne. Thankfully, mum and dad had been smart enough to place her away from Nick and Brianne. She was near Tasha and me instead while Ben and Ashley were near Brianne and Nick.

I saw Nick look over at her with guilt once he was seated. I knew this had to be uncomfortable for him, so I decided that I wasn't going to make any more comments, especially since I knew he loved Brianne.

"Let's tell them right away to get the pressure off them," Tasha whispered to me as she glanced over at Nick and Brianne. I nodded in agreement. "I'll do it as soon as everyone is seated."

Mum served everyone sherry, and I knew that telling them right away was a good idea. Chances are that dad would want to make a toast, and Tasha wouldn't be able to drink hers. It would be a dead giveaway, so as soon as mum was seated, I cleared my throat.

"So before we get too lost in mums delicious cooking, Tasha and I have a couple of announcements to make," I said.

Mum and dad looked extremely excited, as if they knew what we were about to announce. Ben was looking around at everyone excitedly. Nick was wearing a look of shock on his face, and I wondered why until I noticed he was staring at Tasha's engagement ring. Brianne and Ashley were grinning while Brenda remained expressionless.

"Go ahead," mum told me with a big grin on her face.

"Well, first of all, I asked Tasha in September to marry me, and she said yes," I told them, "so we're engaged, but Tasha also just found out that she's pregnant. So we also have a little one on the way."

Just as I knew they all would, everyone got up to hug us. Brenda was the first to embrace us, and I could tell that she was genuinely happy for us. Once she moved away, everyone else began hugging us. Mum had tears in her eyes while she hugged me.

"September mate?" Nick asked once everyone was seated again. "Why did you wait for so long to say something?"

"We wanted to have the family together," I explained "I was planning to tell you when you came back from your travels. I didn't think it was something I could write about."

I knew he was wondering why I didn't just tell him when I told him about the baby, but he just grinned at me.

"Fair enough. I always knew this was going to happen," and then he smiled at Ashley and Ben, "just as we all knew you two would end up together."

"I just can't believe my baby boy is getting married," mum said tearfully. She began dabbing at her eyes with her napkin.

"So when is the wedding?" Brianne asked.

"Well originally, we wanted a summer wedding," I explained, hoping mum and dad would be okay with the short notice, "but after we found out about the baby, we decided to move it up."

"I just don't want to show too much," Tasha explained, "and I don't want this baby coming into the world before we're married. I think he will be here in July. So we decided Valentine's Day."

"Bit early, isn't it?" Brenda asked. "How are you going to get let everyone know in time? Usually, it's more than six months of notice."

"Well, that was the plan originally," I said, trying not to show my annoyance because I knew it was a fair question.

"We'll make sure everyone knows in time," mum said with a smile. I felt relieved as she said this. "I can take care of everything. The wedding will go smoothly and according to plan. Valentine's Day will be so romantic."

"I have to ask," Brianne said, "you said you wanted everyone to know, but Ben and Ashley knew. I'm not trying to make you feel guilty or anything; I want to know why they knew before us."

"Ben has known since the summer," I explained, knowing that this was a fair question as well. "I told him when we went on our vacation. I want him to be my best man. I permitted him to tell Ashley," and then I glanced at Nick. "I want you to be a groomsmen, Nick. I'm sorry if you're offended that you're not the best man. I just really want my little brother to stand up there with me."

Nick grinned over at me.

"I understand, and I am not offended at all, mate. I am just glad to be involved. I'd be happy just to be invited," he said, and I knew he was saying that because of Brianne. I'd never leave him out, though. He'd have to do something huge for me to keep him out of it. This wasn't major.

"Of course, you'll be involved," I assured him. "I would never leave you out of the wedding party."

We spent the rest of the dinner talking about the wedding. I was surprised when even Brenda joined in with Brianne while we discussed outfits. I could tell she was doing her best to ignore Nick, but I thought it was progress that she was at least talking to Brianne.

After dinner, mum and dad asked Tasha and me to go into the sitting room to talk more about the wedding and the new baby. It turned out that we had a lot more planning than I realized.

"Now, if you two want, we can always give you the trust fund now," mum said as she summoned a bunch of parchment and some self-inking quills. "Not for the wedding, we can pay for that, but for the baby."

"I thought I had to be twenty-five," I said with confusion. I knew we could take some out for emergencies, but we wouldn't need all of it for a baby. I knew they were expensive, but not that expensive.

"Not when it comes to this," dad said. "Your grandparents left us as your advisors, and we can access it. We just have to fill out all the forms and take them to Gringotts. We can either give it all to you now or just some."

"Not all of it," I said quickly. "Enough to help us be comfortable when it comes to the baby, but the rest can wait until I'm twenty-five."

"Then I'd say about twenty-five to fifty thousand galleons," dad said. "That will help you be more than comfortable. In the future you may want to buy a house, so you're wise to leave the rest put away. I haven't touched it, but I can also help you expand it now too. I expanded our gold, and I've wanted to do the same for the four of you, but I didn't want to without your permission. With your jobs, I'm sure it will be easy, but there are investments you can make as well."

"Well, Tasha is going to be a stay-at-home mum for a while," I told him. "But I'd be interested in knowing how you do it. I've always wondered how, and I know Ben will want help. He'll probably be richer than all of us."

"I don't doubt that," dad said. "I'll worry about Ben and the girls later, but I'll start looking into the investments for you. I know you'll want to stay in your flat for a little longer, but you're always welcome to come back here temporarily as well, so we can help out. I always wished you would have stayed home at least a year or two, but that was your decision."

"But I don't want to be like Brenda either," I said. "You know she doesn't plan to move out until she gets her trust fund, right?"

"Well, we'll be talking with Brenda soon," mum said. "But she's the least of our concerns right now. You two will be comfortable. Now, about the wedding party. Besides Nick and Ben, who else-"

And it went on for almost two hours, and I felt extremely overwhelmed. There was so much they wanted to do, and we had less than two months to do it all. I was regretting the choice of waiting until Christmas to tell them. However, mum didn't think it would be a big deal. By the time we were done, they had lists of parchment full of wedding details.

"We'll make an appointment for you to get fitted soon," mum told Tasha. "And of course for the girls as well. And you'll need to decide who you want at the wedding as well."

"Well, thankfully, we've already made that list," I told her. "We made that list back in September. We're going to let Ben invite Michael and Ellen, but they don't need to invite dates. I'm sure Brianne will want her friends there as well. I want Gar- Chester and Ralph and well, the other cousins as well."

I almost said Garth as well. Even after all these years, I kept forgetting that he and a few of my other cousins had died. It still bothered me though I'd known with a family our size that it was inevitable. I think mum and dad knew I was about to say his name, but neither showed they had. They just wrote down that we wanted the extended family there.

"Well, get us your list when we can, and we'll make up invitations as soon as we can," mum told me. "I think we could probably have the wedding here. It will make it easier because it might be hard to rent a place on such short notice, especially on Valentine's Day."

"That works for me," I said as I glanced over at Tasha, who nodded.

"If you're okay with that," she responded. "I'd love to get married here. This was always my favourite place to be as a girl."

"I've always dreamed that my children would get married here," mum told her. "And it will be fun getting the place ready for it. We have the room for it here. We'll get some tents to have it outside. People can stay here overnight if they need to, as well."

I was relieved when mum and dad finally sat back, but I knew that there was a lot more coming. We weren't going to rest until we were on our Honeymoon. There was so much we needed to do between now and February fourteenth. I was glad when Nick and Brianne finally joined us to let us know that they were ready to go home.

"We should be too," I said. "We'll be back with our lists, though. It's going to be a lot of work, isn't it?"

"Oh, no dear," mum told me. "I know it seems like a lot, but it's not. I'll work out most of the details. You and Ben will need to arrange for fittings as well. I think it's best if you do that before he goes back to school. I don't want him missing too much school because it's his fifth year. Nick, you should as well, and so should your other groomsmen. Tasha and I will work on the details for our fittings."

I was relieved when we were finally home. It had been a long and exhausting day. I think Nick was relieved to be at home, too, and I knew it was because it had been a very uncomfortable experience for him.

"You know that you don't need to leave," I told Nick once Tasha went to bed. She got tired easily these days. "Flats are expensive."

"Where will the baby sleep?" He asked me. "Look, I have enough saved away now, and I go on more jobs than I used to. I can afford a place on my own for a bit. You and Tasha will be married with a baby on the way. You don't need a roommate. You two are growing up, and I need to as well soon. Besides, I know you hate hearing this, but Brianne will probably move in with me eventually as well. We're giving our relationship time, but I know that we'll have a flat together soon as well."

Instead of getting annoyed, though, I just nodded. I knew it was true as well. I had a feeling that she wouldn't want to share a flat with the girls for too long. I knew she'd always hated sharing a dorm with Hilda, so I knew it would get to her to have to share a flat with her for a long time. I knew she was only doing it, so Hilda's feelings wouldn't be hurt.

"I know," I finally responded. "But don't feel you have to rush. The baby won't be here until the summer."

"I've already started looking for flats, mate," he said. "Actually, there is one that will be available soon in this building, so at least we'll still see each other if I can get it. With a baby coming and you two getting married, it's best for me to leave so you can have your own lives."

"It's not going to be the same without you," I said. "I've lived with you for ten years."

"And now it's time for us all to move on," Nick said. "I'm going to be twenty-two. I'm ready to be on my own as well. And I won't have to feel guilty with Brianne around anymore either. I know you're trying to be okay with it, but it will probably be easier for you when we aren't living together."

"Out of sight, out of mind," I muttered. "I'm not upset about you and Brianne anymore, Nick. I'll admit that sometimes it will hit me, and I get a bit annoyed, but if I had to pick someone for her, it would be you. I know you'll take care of her. You always did. Now Brenda just needs to move on. When we were in Ben's room, I could imagine all six of us raising our kids together."

"And they'll look out for each other just as your cousins did us," Nick said with a smile. "I'm glad we can discuss this without you losing it. Your mum and dad pulled me aside earlier today and told me that they're happy for us too. So they must really like me considering their other daughter is getting hurt from it."

"They've always considered you as another son, just as I've considered you as my brother," I told him. "You're right, though. If you were some random bloke who went for both Brenda and Brianne, they wouldn't be as understanding. They know you're not trying to get with them both. I do hope you understand why I chose Ben over you. I wish I could have you both."

"Barry, I'm not offended in the least," Nick said. "He's your brother, so of course you're going to choose him."

"I just worried you'd think it was because you're with Brianne," I told him. "But I made the decision a long time ago."

"And I get that," Nick said. "I always knew you two would be married, and I am very happy for you both. And now Tasha is finally getting the family she deserves."

"And they'll accept her as their own," I said. "They did back in the first year, but at least now it will be official."

And I didn't say it, but I knew it would be official with Nick as well. He would go from being my best friend to being the brother I'd considered him to be since Sixth Year when he'd gotten beaten up for me.


	7. Chapter 7

Things changed rapidly fast for us after Christmas; there was so much to do, and to get ready for. Nick managed to get the flat he'd told us about. He didn't get it until the end of January, but he decided to move back in with his parents temporarily until his new place was ready. We did our best to convince him to stay, but he wouldn't listen. He thought we should start getting the room ready for the baby as soon as we could. Part of me wondered if it was because of how weepy Tasha was lately.

She was already going through the pregnancy hormones, and it didn't take much to set her off. It wasn't just that, though. Her parents finally got back to her about the wedding, and unfortunately, they had no interest in going to a magical wedding. My mother had reassured them that we could have it with no magic if it made them more comfortable. I was perfectly fine with getting married the muggle way for Tasha, but for whatever reason, her parents still wouldn't come. So we'd been spending the last few days trying to cheer her up. After all these years, I still couldn't figure out how a parent could reject their child.

I was still coming to terms with the fact that I was going to be a father in the summer. At times, it would hit me that I'd be responsible for an innocent life soon, and yet, I couldn't imagine turning my back on my child. When Tasha told me she was pregnant, my first thought had been to comfort her. If our child didn't have magical powers, I would still love him or her no matter what. I would do whatever I could to make sure they were happy. So how could her parents not love her? I knew Tasha had high hopes that her father would walk her down the aisle.

On the first weekend of January, Nick was busy moving his things out when his parents came over to help. Tasha was sitting on the couch and going over wedding details, and I was trying to help Nick pack whatever he had in the living-room. We knew they were coming, so we barely looked up when they entered the flat. I greeted them as I packed some old books of his.

Instead of going to Nick's room, however, they both walked over to where Tasha was sitting on the couch. Simultaneously, they sat down, and she glanced over at them in surprise. I stopped packing and watched them out of curiosity.

"We wanted to talk to you, Tasha dear," Mrs. Lawrence said.

"About what?" She asked.

"You and Barry never really came over often, but we've watched the two of you grow up. We always thought of you two as our extended children. We have since we first met you in the first year," Mrs. Lawrence explained.

"And so we'd like to represent you at the wedding," Mr. Lawrence continued. "I wanted to ask your permission to walk you down the aisle and to give you away at the wedding. You can say no if it makes you uncomfortable, but we wanted you to know that you're not alone."

I wasn't sure how she was going to respond to that. I froze as I stared over at them, all the while wondering if I should go over and hug her. Tasha looked from each of them before she burst into tears. I was about to get up and go over, but Tasha hugged Mr. Lawrence, still sobbing hysterically. He glanced over at me before he hugged her back. Mrs. Lawrence began patting her back.

"Thank you," Tasha said when she finally pulled away. She conjured a handkerchief and began mopping her face up with it. "I'd love it if you could do that. I'm sorry to cry on you."

"It's perfectly fine, dear," Mr. Lawrence told her. "I'd be honoured to walk you down the aisle. You're the daughter we never had, and we're proud of _you_ and Barry. I'm sorry your parents won't be there for you, but we'll always be there for you."

Tasha broke out into fresh tears. Mrs. Lawrence hugged her while I mouthed: 'Thank you,' to them. I'd always liked Nick's parents, but if I hadn't before, I most certainly would now. They were doing such a selfless thing, and I would never forget that. Nick had also come through for us once again, just as he always had. At times, I still felt a bit annoyed about him and Brianne though I was doing my best to be understanding. This act helped me accept it even more than before.

* * *

The flat felt empty with Nick and half of his stuff gone. It was going to take me a long time to get used to him living somewhere else. Other than the holidays, we'd always lived together. However, once he was gone, we decided to start setting up the room for the baby. It was still too early to know the gender, so we decided to use yellow for the time being. We decided that we wanted to be surprised. Tasha had already gone to an appointment, which unfortunately I had to miss because of work, but I planned to be at the next one. My Head was already being very generous when it came to the wedding. She understood we had a baby on the way, but I was assigned to a Quidditch game, which was coming up in a week.

"You didn't miss much anyway," she told me when I lamented about this after work the day of. "They just did the checks to confirm the pregnancy. You can be there for the ultrasound, though. They said the baby is due August fifteenth."

We were sitting side by side on the couch with the wireless on low volume.

"So, we will be parents August fifteenth," I said as I rested a hand on her still flat stomach.

"It could be earlier or later," she told me. "It really depends on the little bean. I'm going to get some pregnancy books too. We should read up as much as we can. I know we can ask your parents, but I want to be able to look it up as well."

"That reminds me," I said. "Mum wants to take you shopping for baby clothes, and apparently she still has a lot of clothes from when Ben was a baby. They're likely in our attic. I think she's just going to keep those at home, though. They're from the eighties, so I don't know how they will look."

Tasha shrugged.

"Honestly, they're good for pictures, but most of the time, baby clothes don't matter. We'll be changing him or her so many times during the day," she said.

"There is truth in that," I said. "I remember when Ben spit up all over himself and me. I remember crying because it was so disgusting smelling."

Tasha giggled. "Well, I hope you don't cry now when it happens now."

"I dunno, I might," I said, winking at her. "Either that or I'll be crying over the dirty diapers."

She slapped my shoulder lightly, and then her face grew serious.

"I've thought of a name for if the baby is a girl," she told me. "I'm just not sure if you'll go for it or not. We don't have to use it, but I thought I'd run it by you anyway."

"I'm sure I'll be happy with whatever name you choose," I told her. "I've already told you that I like the name Trevor, but we don't have to make any final decisions. Mum told me sometimes the name comes to you when you're holding the baby."

"I like the name Trevor too," Tasha told me. "But for the girl name, I want to name her for two people that I've always admired."

"McGonagall?" I asked.

Tasha had always looked up to and admired McGonagall. She'd been very insistent about having her at the wedding. While the two hadn't been close in school, she'd still thought McGonagall was an excellent role model, and I agreed. She'd been very strict, but she was one of the bravest witches I knew.

"Yes, but instead of Minerva, I was thinking maybe Minnie," Tasha said. "Minnie Allison Hoofer."

"Allison..." I said slowly. "That's for-"

And Tasha nodded.

During the Battle of Hogwarts, Tasha had spent most of it trying to protect a young girl named Allison, who was only in the third year. The girl had put up a good fight, but the killing curse hit her during the battle. It had taken a long time for us to get Tasha to talk about her. The two had bonded during the few hours they'd fought together, and she'd taken it really hard that she couldn't protect her. I understood completely why she wanted to name our daughter for the fallen girl.

I reached out to take both her hands.

"I like those names," I told her. "Minnie Allison Hoofer, it is."

"And Trevor Nicholas Hoofer if we have a boy," she whispered.

We kissed each other and then I reached out to feel her stomach again. I couldn't wait until I could feel the baby moving in there. I remembered feeling mum's belly a lot while she'd been pregnant with Ben. It had been so bizarre feeling the movements in her stomach, and at one point, Ben had actually kicked me. I knew it was going to be rough on Tasha, though. As I pulled away from her, I thought of what else I wanted to discuss with her.

"Tasha, I want Nick to be the godfather," I said. "There is no one else I can think of, except maybe Ben. I think Nick should be the first choice, though."

Tasha nodded. "I'm in full agreement, and I honestly believe that he'll still be with Brianne. So do you think she could be godmother and aunt? Or would that be too much?"

"No, you're right. They're going to end up together," I said with a small sigh. "So it's probably best to make her godmother. I can't think of anyone else anyway. She'd be perfect. It's either them or Ben and Ashley, but I think they have enough going on with Hayden."

"Hayden?" Tasha asked, and I realized I'd never told her. I'd only just found out recently, and I'd had more important things on my mind to discuss with her.

"Ashley's godson. Ben told me about it not too long ago. Ashley's old babysitter gave birth to him in September. She decided to name Ashley as his godmother because she's good with kids, but also because she thinks there is a chance he'll be magical. Apparently, the bloke has a magical kid, and so she thinks there is a chance Hayden can be magical too."

"What are the odds of that?" Tasha asked. "Maybe there are more magical folk in her town than she realized. That's really odd that she'd end up with some wizard unless the kid is muggle-born too. Did Ashley ever say if she is related to her?"

"I don't know," I said, thinking back to anything Ben had ever told me about her.

He did often talk about Rachel because she was apparently some hot older lady. All the boys at her New Years' parties went wild for her, and apparently, she'd nearly killed Ben in his first year for being a git to Ashley. The girls all thought she was wonderful and a role model. I'd never met her, but I'd heard quite a bit from Ben and Ashley, but I couldn't remember if they were related. It did seem to be strange that he could be magical as well. Two muggle-borns popping up in the same town? The father had to be magical as well.

"That would be wonderful if he is, though!" Tasha said excitedly. "If he was born in September, than that means he will be in the same year as our kid! We can introduce them, and they can grow up together!"

"I'll talk to Ashley about that the next time I see her," I said, deciding it was a good idea.

I wanted more than anything for my son or daughter to find a good group of friends just as I did. If he or she had a friend since birth, it would really help with that. They'd likely be even closer than my friends, and I were. It would also help Hayden make some friends as well since he'd be growing up in the muggle world. It would make things easier for him because I knew how hard it was for muggle-borns when they joined the Wizarding World.

* * *

Time seemed to escalate even more as we went into February. Every single day, mum and dad were over either talking about the wedding or to drop off some baby things. We'd taken out fifty grand from the trust fund and opened a joint vault. Tasha still wanted her own vault even though we'd be married soon. It was something we discussed at length since I wanted us to share everything, but we finally came to an agreement. We would both keep our own vaults for work, but we'd also have a joint vault that we could both contribute to. I didn't fully understand this as she'd stated many times that she wouldn't care if I took money from her vault.

"It's to show that she is earning her own money, and she wants to keep track of it," mum responded when I brought this up to her and dad one evening.

Tasha was out with the girls for wedding things. Mum and dad decided this was the best time for Nick and me to go over and discuss what my responsibilities were. Nick was filling in for Ben for his best man duties (Ben had asked him to), so he was with me. When the wedding details were over, we were discussing when I planned to buy a house. We planned to stay in the flat for at least a year to expand our gold. Tasha had shown me that by converting galleons to pounds, we'd have more than enough to buy a decent-sized home in a muggle small town. With the trust fund money and our savings, we could possibly get a three-bedroom if we waited a year and continued to save. I'd just finished explaining this to mum and dad when I brought up our three separate vaults.

"We have the same, you know," she continued. "I was the same way with your father when we got engaged. He wanted us to have one vault, but I wanted to show my contribution to our marriage. Just let her, Barry. All of it is your gold combined, but she just wants to show she isn't a freeloader. People will assume that about her, whether you realize it or not. They did it to me, and Tasha's circumstances are very different since most people know about her parents."

"They do it to me too, mate," Nick said. "And they're already doing it to Ashley, and they'll do it to whoever Brenda marries. The only reason you care is because of your ego. You want to take care of her. You're already doing that. You've done it since you met her on the train. Just because Tasha has her own vault, it doesn't mean you aren't taking care of her. She just wants to show she is making her own way as well, and that she is also taking care of _you_."

"I know," I said with a sigh.

"Then let it go, son," dad said. "That is the least of your worries right now. And I still say you two should move in here. Ben is at school most of the time, and Brenda won't bother you. You'll save more money, and you can find a bigger place and pay it off right away."

"You did the same as we are doing," I reminded him.

"But we didn't have children, and I wish we had stayed with my parents when they offered," dad said. "This place is a nice size, but we could have gone for bigger and maybe we could have had a room for all of you. We always planned to have four children. Your father and I never minded sharing rooms growing up, so we figured at least two of you wouldn't mind. We were very wrong about that. We didn't start expanding our gold until after You-Know-Who was gone, and then your grandparents died, leaving us with even more. We should have bought a different house after Ben was born. It could have solved a lot of our problems with Brenda, maybe."

"Or maybe Brenda just didn't need to be a brat," I said, feeling irritated that Brenda's brattiness had to come up. "I remember you talking about that, but you two loved this place too much. They had a sound-proof divider. You saw Tasha's childhood room, and you've also seen Ashley's and Ellen's rooms. Brianne and Brenda's sides were bigger than all of their rooms. She never had to see Brianne unless she wanted to leave the room. You didn't do anything wrong except spanking her when she was too old."

"Barry, someday you are going to have teenagers. I wish more than anything that you'll have no problems raising your children, but it's too much to ask for. You might as well hope that the Cannon's will win the Quidditch Cup. Now that you're about to be a father, we can tell you this. A lot of parenting comes from learning as you go, especially since children have different personalities. You, Brianne, and Ben certainly had your moments, but the three of you have been easy to raise. Ben worries me that he is too intense, and I know he's had sex too young, but I can still deal with that over Brenda. We didn't know what we were doing with her, and we even considered sending her to a Mind Healer, but we worried how she'd even react to that," mum said. "She was not an easy child to raise at all, but we eventually figured out a proper way to punish her and talk to her. Thankfully, she seemed to outgrow it on her own. You might end up with the same problem, Barry."

"You can get all the parenting books you want, but you're not going to find a chapter in there about Brenda," dad added.

"You could maybe write a book then," Nick said with a smirk.

"Maybe I'll do that when I retire, but I wouldn't joke, young man," dad said. "I'm sure someday you'll be raising a Hoofer child as well. And Brianne wants at least three."

"And it will have your genes as well," I added. "I hope you have all boys. Tasha's genes will calm mine down."

"Tasha has her moments," Nick said. "You just don't see it because you think she is perfect. You're going to have a daughter who is a teenager when she is just six. She's going to be like Noah. He's six, and you've seen the attitude he can give. I was never like that with mum and dad... at six anyway."

"That's because he's tired of you lot treating him like a frail baby," I responded. "Treat him like he's six instead of two, and you might see a change."

I truly liked the Lawrences, but they were very protective of little Noah. They always had been, and I believed it was because he was born shortly after Voldemort came back. They'd been very protective of Nick as well, and I did wonder if they were the same way when he was little. He too had been born during Voldemorts's first reign before he'd disappeared. Nick and I hadn't even been a year when he'd gone. Mum and dad had relaxed after that, but I didn't think Nick's parents ever had, and then they'd gone through the same thing with their second born. I could understand their fear as I did worry about the same thing with another dark wizard happening, but I felt as if they smothered Noah at times. He often told me about it.

"I know, he's told me," Nick said. "He's like Ben; he is already writing letters even though he is just six. I get messages from him on my message parchment all the time. But now that group is meeting up all the time in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, and so they're scared. First Voldemort, and now this."

"But they haven't done anything," I said. "They just meet up in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade."

Groups of former Death Eaters were seen hanging out together all the time in pubs in both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. It did scare me, but they hadn't done anything so far, and it made me wonder if they were doing it on purpose. They were likely all still upset that their leader was gone forever, and so maybe they wanted to scare the public into thinking something was going on. Perhaps all they were doing was eating lunch. What could they really do? Anyone who was a known Death Eater was watched. I pointed this out to Nick.

Mum and dad were staring at us, both wide-eyed. Neither were used to us using the name rather than You-Know-Who. During our seventh year, Hermione Weasley had helped us learn to say the name. She'd helped many of us, and while my siblings and parents couldn't do it, several of our classmates could. He'd been dead for so long, and I knew she was right, and so was Dumbledore. Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself. I didn't want to get worked up by a group of people who were closely watched either.

"Not all of them, mate," Nick said. "Look, I didn't want to tell you this because you're about to get married, and you have a child on the way. I didn't want you to stress until you needed to, but that group is worse than we fear. I work with the Aurors and MLE a lot. We Obliviators are also told information that isn't released to the public. They've already been doing things. Most of it is minor, but a few muggles and muggle-borns have been hurt randomly. Most of those people are known as Voldemort supporters and not Death Eaters. Most of the Death Eaters are in Azkaban. Some of them were Death Eaters, but like the Malfoys during the first war, they managed to lie their way out of it. People that have kids at Hogwarts."

"And one of them tried to take Ashley home," dad continued. "I'm sure you've heard of the Zents. Thankfully, she ran into Harry Potter, and he noticed her discomfort, and he took her home. We've put protective spells on her place just in case even still. It could have been harmless, but the Zents were the biggest supporters of You-Know-Who, and plenty of people believe they were even in the inner circle at the end. It seems rather suspicious that he'd offer to take her home. Ben told us that he often bullies all of them."

"Well, no one told me about that," I said with a frown.

"Because as Nick said, we didn't want to stress you out. You have enough to worry about, let alone a group that will probably fail," mum said. "They're rather dumb to be meeting up in The Leaky."

"I think that's why they are doing it," Nick told her. "Who would really believe that they'd meet up in popular places just to discuss plans to start off where Voldemort left off? They're counting on the Daily Prophet to scare everyone, and for the Ministry to try and cover it up as they did before. They're doing something underground too, I'm almost sure of it, and so are the Aurors."

"But even still, if they wanted to do what Voldemort did, they would stay underground," I said. "Mum's right. They are going to fail because they're already being watched. And Harry saw them try to take home a muggle-born. Speaking of which, I need to know everything, especially since I am going to be a husband and father," and I glared over at dad. "You'd expect the same. I bet you did expect it when mum was pregnant with me, and even after. I appreciate the gesture, but I don't want things kept from me. Ashley is likely my future sister-in-law, but even if she's not, she's my brother's girlfriend and best friend. I need to know."

"To be fair, I think they'll fail too," Nick said. "But that doesn't mean they aren't anything to fear. If they're already doing minor things to muggle-borns and muggles, they're capable of more. That's why I don't think it's as dumb as you lot think. I think they know what they're doing because people think the way you all do. Don't let your guard down until we know what they are up to. The fake Moody might have been scum, but he wasn't wrong with what he taught us. With this group, I feel like they don't even care if they fail. They just want to do something big to show us that even though Voldemort is dead, they're still around. History has told us that there will always be a new Dark Lord at some point."

"But do they have any proof yet? Why aren't they cracking down on these people?" Dad asked, and Nick shrugged.

"The Aurors can't discuss that with us. We basically have need to know information, but count on your department getting involved at some point, Barry," Nick added to me. "I'm guessing that no one has been caught at it. When we're called to obliviate muggles, the culprit usually isn't around anymore, and they've already done their interviews with the witnesses. They don't tell us anything beyond what happened. I'm guessing there haven't been any arrests though because whoever it is leaves as soon as they jinx someone. And the Aurors have already told us that there is nothing they can do about them hanging out together. They're not proven to have done anything wrong, not even during the war."

"I haven't even seen it in the Daily Prophet," I said.

"Because you only skim through it," Nick said. "It's not front-page news. We think the Ministry has something to do with it, unfortunately. It's always reported in small vague passages. The Ministry and Daily Prophet came under fire for not reporting enough, or the truth when Harry Potter told us Voldemort was back. So now the Daily Prophet prints it, but The Ministry still doesn't want the public in panic. So they allow them to print it in a way that doesn't scare people. Read it from page to page. It's almost similar to when they were making fun of Harry Potter. It's there, but you have to look for it."

"Well, please just make sure you tell me more from now on," I said. "I need to know."

"Fair enough," Nick said. "But let's not worry about it right now. Ben has given me permission to plan your bachelor party, and you've said no to most of our ideas-"

"You two want to get me drunk the night before my wedding," I said. "I don't want to be hungover or tired or my wedding. I know we have hang-over potions, but you're still tired after taking some. And I don't want some muggle stripper either."

"I know," Nick said. "So Philip and I decided that we're taking you to a Quidditch game the day after your wedding. Tasha's having her spa day with everyone, so we've decided to do the same. We also can't get tickets to a game before then... well, unless we go to you, but that just defeats the whole purpose of us doing this for you. Ben is on board even though he doesn't understand why we can't have a real bachelor party."

Since I was involved with helping hiding Quidditch games, I was often offered free tickets. Quidditch teams had their own stadiums that were hidden, but sometimes the spells needed restrengthening, or they decided to play in a new area. I wasn't exactly sure why they did this. I didn't ask questions, I just helped with muggle repelling charms and with hiding the temporary stadium. Since I was usually set on Quidditch the most, a lot of teams knew me. I'd met the Cannon's captain over a month ago. He was a nice bloke, but he wasn't the best Chaser. He'd given me free tickets however to any game for the next year and Chudley Cannon's baby outfit for a newborn.

"Given the way he is with Ashley already, he will be the same," I said. "I wouldn't be surprised if they don't do it at all. But I'm fine with all of that. I know a lot of blokes would be thrilled with a stripper, but I don't want one. Tasha was the only girl for me, and it has been that way since New Year's in our seventh year."

"We all get it," Nick told me. "No one faults you for that. Philip said he wouldn't get one either if he ever marries Gretchen."

A message appeared on my message parchment, and I saw that it was a long message from Ben, asking for advice. Apparently, he'd made a joke that Ashley was getting heavy during the Christmas Break, and she'd taken it seriously. Since then, she'd been losing weight, and they were fighting a bit about it. I quickly wrote back that he was just going to have to keep talking about it with her. In my opinion, she was overreacting to a harmless comment. I said all this aloud as I wrote back to Ben.

"Well, it was kind of daft for Ben to say that," Nick said.

"Up until Tasha got pregnant, I used to tease her about her weight all the time," I said. "Not one time did she take offence. She just turned it around on me. I don't do it now because I'm not going to comment on my pregnant wife's weight... I don't have a death wish, but that's different."

"She's overreacting, but I agree with Nick as well," mum said. "The kids, including your brother, called her ugly all the time. She's not as secure as Tasha. You've been telling Tasha that she's beautiful likely since you met her. Everyone has always been full of compliments when it comes to Tasha. She knows she is beautiful, and before she got pregnant, she also knew she looked fine. Ashley's likely worried she's going to gain weight since the rest of her family is overweight."

"But she is super skinny," I said. "She can look in the mirror."

"Again, Barry, not every girl is like your sisters or Tasha," Nick said. "Remember how insecure Gretchen was? Many others are as well. Ben used to insist that he would never date Ashley, and not in the way you did with Tasha. He was rude about it, and now she likely feels she has to look perfect for him. He's changed, but remember how blunt Ben used to be?"

"Well, I'm sure it will work out between them," dad said.

"And sometimes girls see fat where there isn't fat," mum added to me. "One of my dormmates at school was like that. We had to convince her almost every day to eat because she looked fine."

"That's just mental. I'm not going to go through that with Tasha, am I?" I asked.

I was sure I sounded heartless, but I just couldn't understand it at all. I felt bad for Ben since he had to deal with that. I liked my brother's girlfriend, but I felt she was completely in the wrong here. I'd teased Tasha all the time about being heavy, and she didn't care. She used to call herself Shamu after some famous whale. She used to tease me as well. It was just our thing when we were having fun, but we both knew that we didn't think like that about each other.

"I think it's best that you be careful about bringing up her weight, just as you have been," mum told me. "I don't mind either if your father makes jokes like that, but it will be different for a while, even after the baby is born. Just discuss it with her if you feel really worried about it. But Barry, a lot of girls aren't like Tasha, just as Nick said. There are a lot of girls who are insecure. A girl who has been bullied, especially the way Ben used to do it to her, is going to be insecure."

"Ben apologized for that, though, and they made up," I said. "She must know he finds her beautiful now. You've seen the way he stares at her. She's a great girl for him, but I just think she brought all this on herself."

"Well, be sure to keep that opinion to yourself around them," Nick said. "Especially if it comes up at the wedding."

"She won't be there," mum said. "Neither will Ellen for that matter."

"What do you mean she won't be there?" I asked. "She has to be there."

I didn't really care about Ellen. I invited her because I knew she'd be hurt if I didn't invite her, but I wanted Ben's girlfriend there. She was likely going to be part of the family someday, and it meant a lot to me to have both her and Ben there. Perhaps I could write to her parents later on, or even visit them. I'd been there enough times. I knew her mother loved me; she'd told me enough times, so surely I could convince them. I said this as I reached for my message parchment.

"We tried," mum said. "We knew how much you, Tasha, and Ben wanted her there, but her mother won't budge. I respect her decision because it's OWL year. It's the same for Ellen. Ellen always slacks off, and so her mother doesn't want here there either."

"We've already promised to send her as many pictures as possible," dad said. "Don't worry about any of that. The people who need to be there will be there."

I could see her mother's point too, so I decided to let it go for the moment. Dad was right after all. The people who truly meant a lot to me would be there. The problem was, the people who meant a lot to Tasha wouldn't be, and it bothered me. And so I was about to do something that I knew could cause a fight between us. I was going to go to her place and tell them off. While Tasha was happy that Nick's dad was going to walk her down the aisle, I knew that her dream was for it to be her dad.


End file.
